A Far-Advanced Passed Pawn Transition to a Rook vs. Pawn Endgame It often happens that a passed pawn is so strong that the opponent must inevitably give a rook away for it. In such cases, one should take into account and know well the methods we have learned from studying rook versus pawns endgames. Black's actions in the following endgame were based on two typical methods: shouldering and cutting off the king. Yusupov - Tseshkovsky Moscow tt 1981 [Diagram] On the straightforward 1.hg? (1.Kd3? 2 Rf2! or 2 Rg2! has the same consequences) 2 Kxg3 Kd3 3 Ra2 c3 4 h4 c2 5 Rxc2 Kxc2 White, of course, cannot play 6 h5?? Rd4!, but 6 Kg4? Kd3 7 h5 Ke4 8 Kg5 Ke5 9 Kg6 Ke6 10 h6 Rg1+ also loses. It is shouldering that helps here: 6 Kf4! Kd3 7 h5 Rh1 8 Kg5 Ke4 9 h6 Ke5 10 Kg6 Ke6 11 Kg7! (rather than 11 h7? Rg1+ 12 Kh6 Kf7 13 h8N+ Kf6 14 Kh7 Rg2*o) 11.
Ke7 (11.Rg1+ 12 Kf8) 12 h7 Rg1+ 13 Kh8!= Deliberating over his next move, Tseshkovsky recognized White's defensive plan and found the way to prevent its realization. 1.Rf1+!! 2 Kg4 hg Now, after 3 Kxg3 Kd3 4 Ra2 c3 5 h4 c2 6 Rxc2 Kxc2, the white king cannot go to f4, and White loses. 3 Rd2+ Ke3 4 Rg2 4 Rc2 Rf4+! 5 Kxg3 Rd4 6 h4 Kd3 changes nothing. 4.Rf4+! White could hold after 4.c3? 5 Rxg3+ Kd4 6 Rg2 Kd3 7 h4 (compared with the line 3 Kxg3 Kd3 he would have an extra tempo).
Alas, Black wins easily by means of cutting the king off along the fourth rank. 5 Kxg3 c3 6 h4 Rc4 7 Rc2 Kd3 8 Rc1 c2 9 h5 Kd2 10 Rh1 c1Q 11 Rxc1 Kxc1! White resigned. The most important method in sharp endings with a far-advanced passed pawn is interference ("building a bridge"). It occurs, together with other useful techniques, in the following example. Balashov - Dvoretsky USSR ch tt, Moscow 1967* [diagram] The main threat is by no means Kc5-b6-b7 - in that case the king will certainly be late when coming back to fight against the black pawn. White is planning 2 Kb5! followed by the interference: Rc6+ and Ra6. If 1.Kf5? then again 2 Kb5! Ra1 (2.
Rxa7 3 Rxa7 g4 4 Kc4 Ke4 5 Rg7 Kf3 6 Kd3 g3 7 Rf7+ and 8 Ke2) 3 Rc5+! Kf4 4 Rc4+ and 5 Ra4, or 3.Kf6 4 Rc6+ and 5 Ra6. Every tempo counts in such situations. Black holds by means of driving the king away by vertical checks. The king should be driven as far as possible from the g-pawn. 1.Ra1! 2 Kb6 Rb1+! 3 Kc6 Ra1 4 Kb7 Rb1+ (the immediate 4.Kf5 is also sufficient for a draw) 5 Kc8 Ra1 6 Kb8 Kf5= Another method of preventing the threat of interference,.