Friday, October 12, 2007

Rook f-, & h-pawns vs Rook

This is one of the few ways to draw when you're two pawns down. I found an interesting resource on the Internet for mastering this ending:

Rook endings with rook and bishop pawns


In this free lesson Peter Joseph covers 32 R+P vs R endings and 16 R+2P vs R endings. There are some real gems in his writings:
  • Why against a central pawn the defender's rook needs 3 files of checking distance, but against a bishop pawn the defender's rook only needs 2 files of checking distance.

  • A simple formula you can use in frontal attack positions with bishop pawns to determine if the endgame is a draw without having to calculate.

  • How the attacker can try to win... by sacrificing the rook pawn to arrive at a won R+P vs R ending, or by driving the enemy king to the back rank.

Enjoy at your leisure, and have a great weekend.   :)

3 comments:

Blue Devil Knight said...

Hey I like this guy Joseph! Thanks for pointing us to him.

likesforests said...

Yeah, I like his style. After losing one R vs R+2P ending he obsessively studied the position until he was confident he had mastered it. :)

Blue Devil Knight said...

His book on tactics also looks great. I hope he finishes it!