Rook vs pawn endgame: cut the king off, or shoulder it away

A rook against a lone pawn should win, but only if the rook side gets there in time. Everything turns on the kings: the rook side wants to keep the defending king away from its pawn, and the defender wants to keep the rook side's king away from it.

Winning: cut the king off

You have White. Black's e-pawn has its king beside it; your king is far away on c8.

1.Ra5! The only winning move. Black's king is cut off along the fifth rank, so the pawn has to go on alone. Anything else lets Black's king join its pawn, and it's a draw.

The pawn runs, and the rook catches it: 3.Ra3, 4.Re3, and 5.Rxe2 leaves rook against king, a win.

Defending: shouldering

You have Black now. White's rook is ready, but White's king, on h6, is coming back to help.

1...Kf5! Black's king stands between White's king and the d-pawn: shouldering. White's king has to walk round it. Then the pawn runs with the king beside it (2...d4, 3...Ke4 guarding it, 5...d3), and White's king arrives too late.

Near the end, 7...Kf1! is the only square. Going to the d-file would block your own pawn. After 8...d2 the pawn is one step from queening and White's king is too far away to help, so White has to give up the rook for it: a draw.

The natural mistake is pushing first: 1...d4? Rc5 cuts Black's king off, as in the first example, and White wins.

The idea to remember

With the rook: cut the king off from its pawn, along a rank or a file, before you go after the pawn. Defending: put your king between the other king and your pawn, and run the pawn with your king beside it.

Train it

These are endgame techniques OptiChess teaches as walkthroughs: the moves play themselves until a moment that matters, then you find the move, checked against the tablebase. More endings are in the chess endgame trainer.

More endgame techniques

• How to checkmate with a queen
• How to checkmate with a rook
• King and pawn endgame
• The opposition in chess
• The rook's pawn
• The outside passed pawn
• Triangulation in chess
• The Réti manoeuvre
• Queen vs pawn on the seventh
• Knight vs pawn endgame
• The wrong bishop
• The Lucena position
• The Philidor position
• Short side, long side
• The Vancura position
• Bishop and knight checkmate
• Rook vs bishop endgame
• Rook vs knight endgame

Ways to train

• Chess tactics trainer
• Chess blunder trainer
• Chess pawn structures
• Chess endgame trainer
• Positional chess training
• Analyse your chess games