       |
[A.J. Goldsby I]
(Position check: White - King on g8, Rook on
f1, Pawn on g7;
Black - King on e8, Rook on h2. White to move.)
The
"Lucena Position."
(This is the actual - original - Lucena, recorded over
500 years ago!)
Cross-reference:
[See "Winning Chess Endings."
(By GM Y. Seirawan.)
Chapter Four, page # 73,
Diagram # 80.]
Composed/discovered by Luis Ramir'ez Lucena, & published in 1497!!!!
BLACK to play; and White to win!
1...Ke7;
Black is trying to keep (up/maintain) the containment of White's
King.
[Not 1...Re2?; 2.Rh1! Rg2; 3.Kh8 Kf7; 4.Rf1+ , ("+/-") and White wins easily. ].
Now White wins with the following manuever:
2. Re1+!,
The - by now - familiar maneuver.
(White drives the Black King farther
away from his King and his Pawn.).
"White's King needs room ... " - GM Yasser Seirawan.
[
Not 2.Rf7+?
Ke8; 3.Rf8+
Ke7;
4.Rf7+
Ke8, and White is not
making much progress. ].
2...Kd7; Forced.
( The alternatives are clearly worse.
{See below.} )
[ Not 2...Kf6?; 3.Kf8, "+/-" and the pawn promotes.
(Or) not
2...Kd6?; 3.Kf7
Rf2+;
4.Ke8
Rg2; 5.Re7!
Rg1;
6.Rf7, "+/-"
and Black cannot prevent King
from e8 to f8, followed by the
promotion
of the Pawn. ].
3. Re4!,
White begins the process
of building the bridge.
(GM Seirawan notes that Black
must hold the h-file, or allow the
White NP to promote.)
3...Rh1; 4.
Kf7!, The best.
"With this, White threatens to
promote and forces the
following checks."
- GM Y. Seirawan.
[ Not 4.Kf8? Rf1+; 5.Kg8 Rh1; which just repeats the position. ].
4...Rf1+; 5. Kg6 Rg1+; 6. Kf6 Rf1+; 7. Kg5 Rg1+;
8. Rg4!, ("+/-")
1 - 0
The bridge has been built. Black is out of checks, and the pawn will go forward.
"The bridge is complete. White
has stopped the series of checks
and now has
the joy of promoting
a pawn." - GM Yasser Seirawan.
Copyright (c) A.J. Goldsby I; (c) 1999, (c) 2000, (c) 2001, & (c) 2002.
This
is the complete version of this game as it exists on my hard drive in my endgame
database,
I have NOT shortened it for publication! If you would like a copy of this
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- in the Chessbase format -
to study on your own computer, please drop me a
line.
If
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Rook-and-Pawn endgame, ("The LUCENA Position");
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Copyright © A.J. Goldsby, 1994 - 2004. © A.J. Goldsby, 2005.
Copyright © A.J. Goldsby, 2005. All rights reserved.
