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Endgame · advanced

The Lucena Position

The most important rook endgame win: shelter your king with the rook to promote.

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touch_appPlay it out against Stockfish. You have 20 moves; a move that throws the win away is caught and explained.

Quick answer

The Lucena is the most important winning position in rook endgames: your king is in front of your pawn on the 7th, the enemy king is cut off. Check the enemy king further away, bring your rook to the 4th rank, then walk your king out and block the rook checks with your rook: building a bridge.

The technique, step by step

First, check the black king away from the pawn's file: Rd1+. After Ke7 it is cut off on the d-file side of the board.
Then the key move, Rd4: the rook goes to the 4th rank, ready to block the checks when the king walks out. That's the bridge.

Your task on the board

The most important rook endgame win: shelter your king with the rook to promote.

Promote the pawn
Goal
White
You play
20 moves
Move limit

Tips from the lesson

  1. 1Cut the enemy king off further with a rook check.
  2. 2Lift your rook to the 4th rank: it will block checks later (the bridge).
  3. 3Walk your king out, and when checks come, block with the rook.

Why it works

Rook and king cooperate: the rook builds a shelter from checks, and the king walks out to free the pawn.

If you get stuck

First check the black king away from the queening file (Rd1+), then bring your rook to the 4th rank.