Portal:Chess/Selected article/44
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The chess endgame of a rook and pawn versus rook is of fundamental importance, and has been widely studied. Endings with rooks and pawns are the most common type to occur in games, occurring in about 10 percent of all games. Rook and pawn endings with more pawns have the potential of being reduced to this type of endgame. Indeed, an entire 352 page book has been written about this ending: Secrets of Rook Endings by John Nunn. The Encyclopedia of Chess Endings allots 102 pages to the analysis of 428 positions of this type.
The play of this type of ending revolves around whether or not the pawn can be promoted, or if the rook has to be sacrificed to keep it from promoting. If the pawn queens, that side will have an overwhelming material advantage. If the pawn is about to promote, the defending side may give up his rook for the pawn, resulting in an easily-won endgame for the superior side. In a few cases, the superior side gives up his rook in order to promote the pawn, resulting in a won queen versus rook position (see Pawnless chess endgames#Queen versus rook). Precise play is usually required in these positions. Some complicated wins require more than sixty moves.
