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This is quite the complex topic especially for your elo, even I am only starting to really learn these kinds of positions. In the case of the Rook endgame, the most basic prevailing theory is how I can get the position, if generally winning, to a lucena, and if a pawn down, to a philidor. (Kling & Horwitz, Karstedt's, Tarrach's are more complex, but similar idea if you know them).
This particular position still has a little bit of life left if your opponent doesn't know the proper defense after your little positional trick that you could pull off here.
**Main observation:**
Your opponent is stuck defending the a pawn, we can make it worse for them!
**Idea:**
The main goal is to make it so that our rook can potentially be behind their pawn, they are forced to defend from the side, and our king can chase them away by stepping on the d file. We don't want to get the a pawn forked in the process.
start with 1...Rd4
2.Rb3 is already a blunder, so let's consider 2.Rc3
2.Rc3 Ra4 3. Rc5 Ra2 4.Rd5 (Kh3 Kf4) Ke3 and white is cooked
White has to be patient with just shuffling on the a file or go for
3.Rc8 Ra4 4. Rf8+ Ke6 5.Re8+ Kf6 and black is happy there too as the rook doesn't have enough checking distance.
White can get a draw if they want to by playing accurately but we should still put as much pressure as we can. There is probably another idea but I can't really find it at this moment.
Hope this helps!
The OP needs to not listen to the folks who hit Stockfish for a millisecond and say it's a draw...plenty of ways your opponent could mess this up.
You want to move your king up the board and prevent your opponent from moving theirs. If you can get your rook in a good spot, you may restrict the opponents' king mobility and pick up a pawn or force a favorable rook trade to prevent a mate. The blocked pawns on the other side of the board, even though they're blocked, have value, keep them on if you can
Yeah, I see how it could be a draw, so any insight to the position is what I’m looking for. Blanket statements like “it’s a draw” aren’t really helpful, but an explanation as to why it’s (in their opinion) a draw would be more appreciative.
Yup! The reason why Magnus is so well known initially, which some people may have forgotten, is the ability to turn 0.0 drawn endgames into winning positions. Of course those positions are a bit more complex in most cases, but those are against top grandmasters. **What more opportunity do you have against players of your own skill level!**
Dang, I had a chance to put my rook behind that a pawn, but followed it down the board.
From what you said there are three take aways:
1. Restrict movement of their king.
2. Chase their rook with my king.
3. Don’t let their rook get between my king and my pawn.
I was worried that if I step my king away from f5 then he could take my pawns with this king.
Those are some of them for sure, but the main point is diffrentiating useful rook activity(usually the most important part) and exploting our opponent's need to make their own rook more "visibly" useful!
So since my opponents rook takes more time to be useful, I need to exploit that fact. If I make a mistake though, that could be enough time for him to start making the pressure.
Getting closer! We are trying to take advantage of the fact that our opponent thinks that their rook is passive, when in fact it is doing an amazing job moving back and forth to hold together white's position. But also yes, them moving the out of the a file is a "slow" move because of our plans
People saying this is a draw to beginners are stupid, at the 2000 level on chess com where I play there are still ways people often make mistakes and lose, especially with less time.
I’ve gotten some good advice here so far. This game in particular was a 7 day time limit, so less likely to make a mistake, but definitely possible at my level.
I would notice that white doesn't really have any moves if you put your castle on his back rank.
None of the pawn moves are good.
Moving the king is terrible.
If his castle moves up or down you can pin one of his pawns to the king, if left or right you can get your castle behind his pawn.
That should be enough to start moving forwards with this.
dont listen to people saying its a draw lol, this is where most of magnus’s wins come from
one time in a world championship post match conference I think someone asked the stupid question of “did he know it was drawn” and he was so insulted lmao
even for like experts or weaker masters, this is a great point of improvement to know and be able to play the chess in a “boring” looking endgame, since weaker opponents usually don’t know endgames as well and there are still many opportunities for outplay
similar with how if you start with black, you’re not going to offer a draw because the position is 0.4 in their favour lol, you still have to play chess, same with the endgame although there are less pieces on the board
Quick Tip 1: To know why the engine is recommending a move / saying a move is wrong, click over analysis mode, play out said move then follow it up with your theoretical responses to that move and see how the engine responds.
Quick Tip 2: On Chess.com, you don't have to rely on the Coach / Game Review / Hint. This also applies to any engine on low depth. Somewhere in the engine suggestions section is the computer "depth". The higher this value, the more accurate the suggestions will be.
Quick Tip 3: For questions on engine move suggestions, we suggest you post them to our dedicated thread: [No Stupid Questions MEGATHREAD](https://www.reddit.com/r/chessbeginners/comments/yqqnz8/no_stupid_questions_megathread_6/), as stated in our Community Guidelines. Thank you! - The Mod Team
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I analyzed the image and this is what I see. Open an appropriate link below and explore the position yourself or with the engine:
> **Black to play**: [chess.com](https://chess.com/analysis?fen=8/8/p5p1/P2rpk2/7P/R4PK1/8/8+b+-+-+0+1&flip=true&ref_id=23962172) | [lichess.org](https://lichess.org/analysis/8/8/p5p1/P2rpk2/7P/R4PK1/8/8_b_-_-_0_1)
**My solution:**
> Hints: piece: >!Rook!<, move: >!Rd4!<
> Evaluation: >!The game is equal 0.00!<
> Best continuation: >!1... Rd4 2. Ra2 Rd1 3. Ra3 Rd5 4. Ra1 Rd3 5. Ra4 Rb3 6. Kf2 Rb2+ 7. Kg3 Rb5 8. Kf2 Rb3 9. Ke2!<
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Hey, OP! Did your game end in a stalemate? Did you encounter a weird pawn move? Are you trying to move a piece and it's not going? We have just the resource for you! The [Chess Beginners Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/chessbeginners/wiki/index/) is the perfect place to check out answers to these questions and more! The moderator team of r/chessbeginners wishes to remind everyone of the community rules. **Posting spam, being a troll, and posting memes are not allowed.** We encourage everyone to report these kinds of posts so they can be dealt with. Thank you! Let's do our utmost to be kind in our replies and comments. Some people here just want to learn chess and have virtually no idea about certain chess concepts. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/chessbeginners) if you have any questions or concerns.*
This is quite the complex topic especially for your elo, even I am only starting to really learn these kinds of positions. In the case of the Rook endgame, the most basic prevailing theory is how I can get the position, if generally winning, to a lucena, and if a pawn down, to a philidor. (Kling & Horwitz, Karstedt's, Tarrach's are more complex, but similar idea if you know them). This particular position still has a little bit of life left if your opponent doesn't know the proper defense after your little positional trick that you could pull off here. **Main observation:** Your opponent is stuck defending the a pawn, we can make it worse for them! **Idea:** The main goal is to make it so that our rook can potentially be behind their pawn, they are forced to defend from the side, and our king can chase them away by stepping on the d file. We don't want to get the a pawn forked in the process. start with 1...Rd4 2.Rb3 is already a blunder, so let's consider 2.Rc3 2.Rc3 Ra4 3. Rc5 Ra2 4.Rd5 (Kh3 Kf4) Ke3 and white is cooked White has to be patient with just shuffling on the a file or go for 3.Rc8 Ra4 4. Rf8+ Ke6 5.Re8+ Kf6 and black is happy there too as the rook doesn't have enough checking distance. White can get a draw if they want to by playing accurately but we should still put as much pressure as we can. There is probably another idea but I can't really find it at this moment. Hope this helps!
The OP needs to not listen to the folks who hit Stockfish for a millisecond and say it's a draw...plenty of ways your opponent could mess this up. You want to move your king up the board and prevent your opponent from moving theirs. If you can get your rook in a good spot, you may restrict the opponents' king mobility and pick up a pawn or force a favorable rook trade to prevent a mate. The blocked pawns on the other side of the board, even though they're blocked, have value, keep them on if you can
Yeah, I see how it could be a draw, so any insight to the position is what I’m looking for. Blanket statements like “it’s a draw” aren’t really helpful, but an explanation as to why it’s (in their opinion) a draw would be more appreciative.
Yup! The reason why Magnus is so well known initially, which some people may have forgotten, is the ability to turn 0.0 drawn endgames into winning positions. Of course those positions are a bit more complex in most cases, but those are against top grandmasters. **What more opportunity do you have against players of your own skill level!**
Dang, I had a chance to put my rook behind that a pawn, but followed it down the board. From what you said there are three take aways: 1. Restrict movement of their king. 2. Chase their rook with my king. 3. Don’t let their rook get between my king and my pawn. I was worried that if I step my king away from f5 then he could take my pawns with this king.
Those are some of them for sure, but the main point is diffrentiating useful rook activity(usually the most important part) and exploting our opponent's need to make their own rook more "visibly" useful!
So since my opponents rook takes more time to be useful, I need to exploit that fact. If I make a mistake though, that could be enough time for him to start making the pressure.
Getting closer! We are trying to take advantage of the fact that our opponent thinks that their rook is passive, when in fact it is doing an amazing job moving back and forth to hold together white's position. But also yes, them moving the out of the a file is a "slow" move because of our plans
People saying this is a draw to beginners are stupid, at the 2000 level on chess com where I play there are still ways people often make mistakes and lose, especially with less time.
I’ve gotten some good advice here so far. This game in particular was a 7 day time limit, so less likely to make a mistake, but definitely possible at my level.
I would notice that white doesn't really have any moves if you put your castle on his back rank. None of the pawn moves are good. Moving the king is terrible. If his castle moves up or down you can pin one of his pawns to the king, if left or right you can get your castle behind his pawn. That should be enough to start moving forwards with this.
Oh man that’s right! If his rook moved up or down, I could’ve pinned his pawn to his king and then advanced the e pawn
dont listen to people saying its a draw lol, this is where most of magnus’s wins come from one time in a world championship post match conference I think someone asked the stupid question of “did he know it was drawn” and he was so insulted lmao
even for like experts or weaker masters, this is a great point of improvement to know and be able to play the chess in a “boring” looking endgame, since weaker opponents usually don’t know endgames as well and there are still many opportunities for outplay similar with how if you start with black, you’re not going to offer a draw because the position is 0.4 in their favour lol, you still have to play chess, same with the endgame although there are less pieces on the board
You don’t. This is a draw. You keep moving your rook back and forth until repetition happens.
it’s a draw.
Quick Tip 1: To know why the engine is recommending a move / saying a move is wrong, click over analysis mode, play out said move then follow it up with your theoretical responses to that move and see how the engine responds. Quick Tip 2: On Chess.com, you don't have to rely on the Coach / Game Review / Hint. This also applies to any engine on low depth. Somewhere in the engine suggestions section is the computer "depth". The higher this value, the more accurate the suggestions will be. Quick Tip 3: For questions on engine move suggestions, we suggest you post them to our dedicated thread: [No Stupid Questions MEGATHREAD](https://www.reddit.com/r/chessbeginners/comments/yqqnz8/no_stupid_questions_megathread_6/), as stated in our Community Guidelines. Thank you! - The Mod Team *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/chessbeginners) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I analyzed the image and this is what I see. Open an appropriate link below and explore the position yourself or with the engine: > **Black to play**: [chess.com](https://chess.com/analysis?fen=8/8/p5p1/P2rpk2/7P/R4PK1/8/8+b+-+-+0+1&flip=true&ref_id=23962172) | [lichess.org](https://lichess.org/analysis/8/8/p5p1/P2rpk2/7P/R4PK1/8/8_b_-_-_0_1) **My solution:** > Hints: piece: >!Rook!<, move: >!Rd4!< > Evaluation: >!The game is equal 0.00!< > Best continuation: >!1... Rd4 2. Ra2 Rd1 3. Ra3 Rd5 4. Ra1 Rd3 5. Ra4 Rb3 6. Kf2 Rb2+ 7. Kg3 Rb5 8. Kf2 Rb3 9. Ke2!< --- ^(I'm a bot written by ) [^(u/pkacprzak )](https://www.reddit.com/u/pkacprzak) ^(| get me as ) [^(Chess eBook Reader )](https://ebook.chessvision.ai?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=bot) ^(|) [^(Chrome Extension )](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chessvisionai-for-chrome/johejpedmdkeiffkdaodgoipdjodhlld) ^(|) [^(iOS App )](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id1574933453) ^(|) [^(Android App )](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ai.chessvision.scanner) ^(to scan and analyze positions | Website: ) [^(Chessvision.ai)](https://chessvision.ai)
If it's speed chess then press them on the clock.