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RivalPlaying the Lichess tablebase

Youwith WhiteYour turn

Rook and pawn

Lucena position

Goal: win with White

Promote or mate without letting the win go

  1. The win is still onThe tablebase checks it after each of your moves.
  2. Promote the pawn or give matePending.
Analyse this position

Tablebase

Key ideaExplains the solution

The white king sits on the and the black king is cut off by the rook on the d-file. The plan is “”: the rook goes to the fourth rank (), the king leaves the queening square and, when the come, the rook blocks them from the fourth rank.

Moves

No moves yet.

About this endgame

It is the most important winning position in rook and pawn endings. Rook endings are the most common endings in chess. Its name is a historical mistake. Luis Ramírez de Lucena published the oldest printed chess treatise that survives, in Salamanca around 1497, but the position is not in it: the earliest known analysis is by Alessandro Salvio, in 1634. The name stuck anyway. A Lucena needs three things: your pawn one step from , your king in front of it, and the enemy king by your rook at least one file away. When all three are there, you win by . It does not work with a rook pawn. If instead the defender gets in front of the pawn in time, they will aim for the . The two go together: one tells you when the ending is won, the other how to defend the rest.