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The Lucena Position - Part 1 An Important Rook and Pawn Ending by David Surratt
Luis Ramirez Lucena, (1465-1530 est.) was a Spanish chess player and author of the oldest existing printed book on chess, Repeticion de Amores y Arte de Axedres, published in Spain in 1497. Only 8 copies are known to exist according to Mecca, quoting Bill Wall. However, chess historian Ken Whyld reports "...there are about 20 copies of Lucena's book in existence, some incomplete. The Lucena position does not appear in it." The book is divided into two parts, the first dealing with love, and the second with chess. Among other things the manuscript covered ten openings, including the French Defense and the Scandinavian. This famous ending pattern first appeared in Salvio's book Il puttino (1634). This position, and ones similar in characteristic, are known as the Lucena position. The Lucena position is won for White, regardless of who is on move, and regardless of which file the pawn is on, except for the a & h files. Why is this position so important to understand? Well, consider that rook endings are the most common in chess (accounting for nearly 60% of all endgames) and often a material imbalance of a mere pawn occurs which carries over to the endgame. Knowledge of this type of ending is essential to the practical chess player. In this article we will look at only those rook endings involving the above type of position, how this type of position is reached, and the exception to winning for the stronger side. Let's look at the basic winning method (click
here for an interactive JavaScript board):
1.Rf4 The rook needs to be on the 4th rank in order to provide shelter for the king, which is going to wind up on g5. Many chess teachers call this "building a bridge", although I have never really understood that as being descriptive of what White is trying to accomplish. For me, I think of it as building a shield, since White wants to shield his king from the coming Black checks. Black's only hope is to keep checking the king once it emerges from the shelter of it's pawn, hoping that White won't be able to avoid a perpetual check. 1. ..... Rh1 Black stays on the h-file in order to keep the White king as restricted as possible. If instead 1...Rg2 then White's rook takes over the h-file, allowing his king into h8. - Keres. 2.Rh4 Kf6 3.Rh6+ Ke7 4.Kh8 Kf7 5.Rh7. 2.Re4+
Creating space for his king by moving the Black king back a file. White gets nowhere by 2.Rf7+ Ke8 3.Rf8+ Ke7 as his own king is still trapped. 2. ..... Kd7 It makes no difference where the Black king goes: d6 and d8 all have the same result. 3.Kf7 At last the king gets out from in front of his pawn. 3. ..... Rf1+ All Black can do is try to keep checking the White king and hopefully drive him back in front of his pawn again. 4.Kg6
Rg1+
Now you can see why the White rook was needed on the 4th rank - after the coming check White can interpose the rook. 6. .....
Rg1+ The pawn can not be stopped. Next let's take a look at the same position with Black to move, and see if White can still win:
1. ..... Rh3 Black still has to stay on the h-file, for the same reasons mentioned above. Since White wants to get his rook on the 4th rank, why shouldn't Black try to take possession of it? 1...Rh4 2.Rf2 (2.Rf3 works too) A great zwischenzug, or in-between move, and now Black has to abandon either the 4th rank or the h-file. King moves won't work either... 2...Ke6 3.Kf8 and Black can not prevent the pawn from queening. 2.Rf4 The rook needs to be on the 4th rank in order to shield the king from that final check. 2. .....
Rh1 ...and we've reached the identical position in our first example after 2.Re4+. White wins. In Just the Facts! by Lev Alburt & Nikolay Krogius the authors summarize the winning technique thusly:
Next let's take a look at some similar Lucena positions:
Black wins after 1...Re5 (taking possession of the 5th rank) 2.Rb7 Kd2 3.Rd7+ Kc3 4.Rc7+ Kd3 5.Rd7+ Kc4 6.Rc7+ Rc5 and White can't stop the pawn from queening. Here is another:
(click here for an interactive JavaScript board) White can not win by simply moving his king out and zigzagging down the board towards the rook... 1.Ke7 Re2+ 2.Kd6 Rd2+ 3.Kc6 Rc2+ 4.Kb5 Rb2+ 5.Kc4 Rd2 and Black wins the pawn. 1.Rf4 White takes possession of the 4th rank straight off. 1. .....
Rc1 4.Kc6 also works. 4. ..... Re1+ If 4...Rd2 then 5.Rf5 intending 6.Rd5, again shutting out the Black rook. 5.Kd5
Rd1+ and once again the pawn will queen. White actually has a second winning method available: 1.Ra1 with the idea of evicting Black's rook from the c-file, thus providing another route for the king to emerge without those bothersome checks preventing the pawn from queening. After the rook takes his place on c8, it will be protected by the pawn and in position to eventually protect the new queen on d8, effectively preventing Black from either exchanging rooks or defending the queening square. 1...Kf7 2.Ra8 Rc1 ( If 2...Ke6 3.Ke8 Rh2 threatening mate on h8. 4.Ra6+ Kf5 5.d8Q) 3.Rc8 the first step in the process; the Black rook must leave the c-file. 3...Rd1 4.Kc7 Rc1+ 5.Kb6 Rb1+ 6.Kc5 the second part: White will zigzag down the board until Black runs out of checks, then queen his pawn. In Part 2 of this article we will look at why White cannot win if the pawn is on the a or h-files, and in Part 3 we will examine the important question of getting to the Lucena position from earlier in the endgame.
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