Lucena — the winning position

White wins White to move · Rook endgames · Difficulty about Elo 1300

The plan

Lucena is the most important winning position in all of rook endgames, and it rests on two conditions: your pawn stands on the seventh rank with your own king in front of it on the queening square, and the enemy king is cut off by your rook. The obstacle is your own king: it blocks its pawn and cannot get out, because the enemy rook gives check after check from the side. The solution is a roof: the king steps out, your rook occupies the pawn's file and so takes away every check from the front, the king goes next to the pawn, and the last check is blocked by the new queen itself. How solid the position is shows in the measurement: sixteen of the eighteen moves win, and both exceptions merely offer the rook trade — in the whole teaching line not a single move is forced. So Lucena is not hard to PLAY but hard to RECOGNISE: whoever finds the two conditions on the board has already got the point. There is one exception, and it is the usual one: in the middle of the board White wins against every one of the forty-four squares the enemy king can be placed on — pushed to the edge, four of them hold the draw. And if the enemy king sticks so close to the pawn that your own king has no escape squares, you need the second method, the bridge on the fourth rank; there is a separate lesson for that here.

Rule of thumb: king in front of the pawn and the opponent cut off — then king out, rook as a roof on the pawn's file, queen.

Why this level: THE winning position, required knowledge

The solution, move by move

1. 1. Kd7 The king steps out and makes room for the pawn. White has eighteen moves here and sixteen of them win — the two exceptions offer the rook trade. The trade is the most common mistake in this position and is shown as a sideline.
   Sideline 1. Rd2 The rook trade looks harmless and is the quickest way to throw away this winning position. It is one of only two moves that spoil anything here at all. 1… Rxd2 Because now the white king remains a prisoner IN FRONT OF its own pawn, and there is no rook left that could build it a roof. 2. Kf7 Re2 The rook keeps a safe distance and simply waits for the promotion. 3. e8=Q Rxe8 Rook for the fresh queen — the standard trade. Bare kings, a draw. This is exactly what the king move in the main line prevents: it steps OUT instead of trading. 4. Kxe8
2. 1… Rh7 Black takes the seventh rank. From there the rook attacks the pawn — defended by the king on d7 — and waits for checks from the side. The most stubborn try.
3. 2. Rd5 The rook sets off to build the roof: its target is the pawn's file. The king has to stay on d7 meanwhile, otherwise the pawn hangs (sideline).
   Sideline 2. Kc8 Stepping aside has to be learned too: from c8 the king no longer defends its own pawn. The king belongs exactly next to the pawn, not just anywhere. 2… Rxe7 And that is why the black rook has been on the seventh rank since the first move. Rook against rook — a draw. 3. Rd6+ Kc5 The rest is a formality. The lesson: as long as the roof is not up, the pawn depends on protection from its own king.
4. 2… Rg7 Waiting. Black can no longer disturb the set-up — all thirteen possible moves lose equally, it is only about stubbornness now.
5. 3. Re5 The roof is up. On the pawn's file the rook covers every square from which the opponent could check from the front; all that is left to him are checks from the back rank. This is the heart of the Lucena technique.
6. 3… Rh7 Black returns to the seventh rank and waits for the one check he has left.
7. 4. Kd8 The king places itself next to its pawn. The queening square is free, and because your rook holds the pawn's file there is no check from the front any more.
8. 4… Rh8+ The last desperate check from the back rank — the only one Black has left at all.
9. 5. e8=Q And the promotion blocks it at once: the new queen steps between rook and king. Rule of thumb: king out, rook as a roof on the pawn's file, queen.

More in Rook endgames

• The rook behind the passed pawn White wins
• Philidor — the drawing defence Draw
• Vancura — draw against the rook pawn Draw
• Short side, long side Draw
• Rook against pawn — the king catches it White wins
• Rook against pawn — one square too far Draw