Endgames
Rook endgame tactics
More games reach a rook ending than every other ending combined, and rook endings are decided by tactics far more often than their reputation for dryness suggests: a skewer on the back rank, a check from behind, a pawn that queens because the rook is one square out of position.
How to spot it
Rooks belong behind passed pawns, theirs and yours, and most tactics here come from that. Look for checks that gain a rank, for the skewer that follows a king being forced to move, and for the moment a rook is tied to a pawn and can be attacked a second time.
The positions
Easiest first. Every one is from a real game, and the rating under each board is what it costs the players who have tried it on lichess.
-
1. White to play Play it out →Answer
43.c6+ Rxc6+ 44.bxc6+
-
2. White to play Play it out →Answer
37.Rd1+ Kc7 38.Rxe7+
-
3. Black to play Play it out →Answer
36...Rd5+ 37.Kc4 Rxd1
-
4. White to play Play it out →Answer
44.Rxg7 Rd6 45.f7 Rf6 46.Kxd4
-
5. White to play Play it out →Answer
38.g6 Rb2 39.g7 Rb8 40.Rh6+ Kg5 41.Rh8
-
6. White to play Play it out →Answer
50.h6 Kg6 51.Rb6+
-
7. Black to play Play it out →Answer
35...Rh1 36.Rxa2 Rh2+ 37.Ke3 Rxa2
-
8. White to play Play it out →Answer
42.Rc4 bxc4 43.c7
-
9. Black to play Play it out →Answer
76...Rxh7 77.Rxh7 e2+ 78.Kg2 e1=Q
-
10. White to play Play it out →Answer
36.a5 f3 37.a6 f2 38.a7 f1=Q 39.a8=Q+ Qf8 40.Rb8
-
11. Black to play Play it out →Answer
34...g5+ 35.hxg6 e5+ 36.Kf5 Rf3#
-
12. White to play Play it out →Answer
58.Rc7+ Kf8 59.a6 Ra1 60.a7
Reading about a pattern is the easy half. Motify finds the positions where you missed one, by running your own lichess and Chess.com games through Stockfish, and puts each of them behind two or three puzzles on the same idea so you meet it having just found it three times. See how Motify works.
Positions from the lichess puzzle database, released under CC0.