Spectacular Endgames (Rooks)Saturday, September 30. 2006
Author: Servant
I have for eight years been collecting and cataloging chess problems and studies that have been published in newspapers, magazines and there have been such positions in my own games. As you can imagine the collection is quite large and i need a new folder to add to this and to keep everything in. I also have a few chess books which are helpful, though even without them i can still play well. In Australia we have three main papers that have a chess column once a week. These include the Sun-Herald on Sundays, the SMH on Mondays and the Weekend Australian on Saturdays and are less than $2 each. I usually get all three of these papers and they rightly tend to be on page number 64. What i especially like are endgame compositions. These positions are easy to setup and study as well as being instructive and entertaining. They are always tactical and one piece out of place is usually a recipe for losing. Usually i find that alot of the time the rooks take part in these endings. They usually have the final say, as they want to because they spend alot of time in the corners, drinking latte's. But them latte's fire them up and then they are alert and ready for anything. As i recommend free speech i will let these rooks speak for themselves! These endings have been hand picked out of the many ones i have stored away and you probably haven't seen them before, though you may have well seasoned pattern recognition skills if you class yourself as an expert. I have included the answers but i know there are people who can solve all six without them, though it is testing as you will have to think deeply in all of these endgames. White to move in all of them.  (Diagram 1) White to move wins W: Ke1 Re5 Re4 B: Ka8 Ra7 Ra4 A somewhat unusual, though possible endgame with all the pawns deserted from the arena! This game has certainly gone down to the wire 1.Rb5! R7a5 (1...R7a6, 1...Rxe4 or 1...Rh7 loses to 2.Rb8+) 2.Reb4! Ka7 3.Rb7+ Ka8 4.Rb8+ Ka7 5.R4b7+ Ka6 6.Ra8 mate its always handy to have the opposing king in the corner at the start because he can't jump over the ropes! 1-0  (Diagram 2) White to move wins W: Ke1 Re4 c6 f6 B: Kd8 Rd5 c7 f7 This looks as if some sort of technique is needed, remember that the rook can always swing across to both sides of the board! 1.Ra4 Ke8 2.Rh4! Re5+ 3.Kd2 Kd8 4.Ra4 Rd5+ 5.Ke3 Ke8 6.Rh4 Re5+ 7.Kd4 with Black's king in peril, White wins 1-0  (Diagram 3) White to move wins W: Kc5 Rd3 a3 b3 B: Ke6 Rh4 f6 f4 h5 Black is a full pawn up. Does it look like Black's rook is offside? How will this impact the following moves, how can White take advantage of this? 1.a4 Rg4 2.b4 Rg3 3.Rd1 f3 4.a5 Ke5 5.a6 Kf4 6.a7 Rg8 7.b5 f2 8.b6 Ke3 9.b7 Rg1 10.b8(Q) Rxd1 11.Qg3+ Ke2 12.a8(Q) Rc1+ 13.Kd4 Rd1+ 14.Kc3 Rc1+ 15.Kb2 1-0 An exciting end nonetheless and worth rembering  (Diagram 4) White to move wins W: Kc2 Rg8 a2 b3 B: Kb4 Rh4 a6 c3 h3 Black is one point ahead and soon to queen. Does one always consider every possible move, no matter how creative? 1.Rg5! h2 (both 1...Rh8 2.a3+ Kxa3 3.Rg4 and 1...Rd4 2.a3+ Kxa3 3.Kxc3 will win for White) 2.a3+ Kxa3 3.Ra5+ Kb4 4.Ra4+ wins the rook and stops the runaway h-pawn 1-0  (Diagram 5) White to move wins W: Kf4 Ra7 d7 d5 B: Kg7 Rf8 e7 f5 h5 As by now you may have realized that extra pawns can be all talk but sleeping! Advanced pawns always play a factor in chess calculating 1.d6 (1.Rc7? Rd8 is only a draw) Kf6 2.de Kxe7 3.d8(Q)+ Kxd8 4.Ke5 the king can be more powerful than he gets credit for 1-0  (Diagram 6) White to move wins W: Ke6 Re5 f7 h6 B: Kg6 Rf1 White is down two pawns and it looks like a draw until in a flash of a camera one finds something brilliant and special 1.Rg5+!! Kxg5 2.h7 Re1+ (2...Rf6 3.Ke7 Kg6 4.h8Q Rxf7+ 5.Ke6 wins too) 3.Kd7 Rd1+ 4.Ke8 Re1+ 5.Kf8 Rh1 6.Kg7 that was a short run by White's king, perhaps he had been drinking red soft drink in anticipation 1-0 These problems were quite engaging and i hope to show some people i know them. Thinking along lines, a challenge would be doing some rook endings with Black to move wins. There must be some sort of these out there. The rook is a dancer but sometimes only a piece. I hope to do some more entertaining endings with pawns, knights, bishops and queens sometime in the future. They want to speak too. Trackbacks
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All I can say is wow... You people should be writers for real!
 Great article!Comment (1)
I agree with damn cat, I can play some games well but could never write a how too
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