Learning about rook vs. pawn endgames: English/Spanish bilingual mode

In a recent game, I got into a very bad endgame for me. I had two pawns less than my opponent and the people around us were starting to wonder why I did not give up. It was already getting later and later. At some point it was clear that our team did not need an extra point (or half a point) to win the match.

But suddenly, we got into this position:

In between things, I had got one of my opponent's extra pawns. But I still had one pawn less than him. His latest move was Kf7-f8. This allowed me to get to Ke6 with my king and after e5 Kxe5, we had equal pawns. The question left was: What happens after f7?

Let me throw some ideas into the room: Kd6 secures the last black pawn. Kd5 secures the last black pawn and attacks the white rook. Kf6 attacks the f7 pawn, Ke6 attacks the f7 pawn and lets the f-line for the rook open to add on the attack. Rf3 attacks the white pawn with the rook and moves like Ra3, Rb3 are opening the rook to go for the pawn or king from an attack from the side like Ra3, Kg7, Ra7.

After Ra3, Black would be forced to give the rook for the white pawn but would also lose the pawn on c5. White can always start Ra3, Rxc5. And when Black doesn’t reach the point to win the white pawn without losing the rook, White simply has a rook left to checkmate. So, let’s try securing the black pawn with either Kd6 or Kd5. Kd5 forces the rook to move, so that one feels a bit nicer. Kc6 has the advantage of preparing Kc7. This way, the white king wouldn’t have any moves left.

White has different ideas to promote their pawn into a queen. If White puts their rook onto the f-line, Black can attack from the side. If White tries other ways of defense, Black can attack from the f-line. At the end, Black exchanges their rook for the white pawn and plays a king and pawn against king and rook endgame.

What chances does Black have in a king and pawn against king and rook endgame while Black is the one with king and pawn?

Let’s check our dear endgame books! Let’s go to the easiest king and rook vs. king and pawn endgame in the endgame book “100 Endgames you must know” by Jesus de la Villa. Ending 21 says “Kings do not push, just counting” (p.76). While the book talks about quite a lot of rook vs. pawn endgames, the easiest one is about counting the moves needed for both sides to secure the promotion square for the pawn. The side with the pawn never has the opportunity to win (as long as the positions is not exceptionally bad for the side with the rook, see page 91, “Ending 29: The pawn wins against the rook”!)
So, the question for pawn vs. rook endgames is if the side with the rook is fast enough to win the pawn or if the side with the pawn is fast enough to promote the pawn so that the side with the rook has to give up their rook for the promoted queen.

For the bilingual juice

The endgames have numbers in the book, so when we check the ending 21 and 29 in the Spanish version of the book (“Los 100 finales que hay que saber” by Jesús De la Villa García), we reach the correct content: “Final 21: Los reyes no se molestan” (p.64) and “Final 29: El peon gana a la torre” (p. 77).

For the easiest rook vs. pawn endgame, the book says the following:
“Simplemente contando: La primera aproximación para resolver estos finales es contar los tiempos: para el bando de la torre, los tiempos que tardan la torre y el rey en controlar la casilla de coronación del peon; para el bando del peón, los tiempos que necesita el rey en apoyar la coronación y el peón en llegar a octava. (p. 64, “100 finales que hay que saber”).

This small paragraph is rich of chess specific terms, it’s a feast for a chess loving language person.

Disclaimer: The table design here in Lichess is new to me. The words are "los tiempos", "controlar" and "la coronación" without any extra spacing. Unfortunately the design opted to break up the Spanish words and not at least the English stuff... But well, let's go back to the topic.

That’s a nice little list with vocabulary to learn chess specific language!

Back to the endgame: What’s the result of counting the moves?

Let’s start with the position pawn vs. rook that I had on the board for real:

The black king already sits next to the promotion square. The king just needs to move one square at the side to let the little pawn through. The pawn needs 3 steps After that. If white weren’t doing any check moves, black would need 4 moves to promote. Meanwhile, white’s king was nowhere near the promotion square. White needs one move to get to the c-line with the rook and at least 6 moves with the king to reach the promotion square.

In other words, if we stay with the easiest endgame rule, black would get a pawn promotion and a draw.

BUT! Of course, there is a “but”. De la Villa also mentions in the book that most endgames aren’t that easy. White’s king isn’t fast enough to stay in the way for Black, but the white rook has the opportunity to give a check after the king moves to the side (b2, for example). That way, there is a chance for white to win a move for the king (especially if black steps in the way of their pawn on c1) but not even that helps white in this case. The way from f8 to somewhere around the c-pawn is too far. As long as Black moves fast and does not gift White too many extra tempi, the game should be a draw.

Checking different outcomes

In this article, I’ve showed you the position in which Black still had a rook and some ideas how Black exchanges their rook for the white pawn which ends up in a rook vs. pawn endgame. I’ve also showed you the endgame position that actually resulted on the board out of it. What I haven’t shown you is how different moves in the scenario of rook & pawn vs. rook and pawn would have ended up. Is the ending 21 “count the moves” by Jesus De la Villa the response to that situation as well? If you want to train your endgame knowledge, feel free to check out some alternatives and see if black still gets a draw! Asking the computer for the result is something we all can. But can you find the different ways yourself?

Sources

De la Villa, Jesus (2023): 100 endgames you must know, English version, 6th improved version, Alkmaar: New in Chess.

De la Villa García, Jesús (2018): Los 100 finales que hay que saber, Spanish version, 3rd revised version, Santa Eulalia de Morcín: Editorial Chessy.

A nice extra

To get a downloadable version (with a better layout) of the vocabulary list, you can check out my website. I have added a file there on a dedicated page for this article.