Important trick in rook endgames

When the subject of rook endgames comes up people always start talking about philidor positions and such... but I like to keep the subject on what makes chess exciting. And thats tactics.



In this position white can simply play Kf8.



and black will loose his rook... much more exciting than 1.Rf1+ which the tablebases will tell you is the best move mating one move sooner than this.

I'll end with a position that you should know how to solve.



black to move and win. prove that other attempts don't work.

Just Rf1 right? The black rook comes to the g file and makes possible the king's escape from h1. Of course there are many empty bottles on the table now, so I could be mistaken.

Originally posted by emperor31
Just Rf1 right? The black rook comes to the g file and makes possible the king's escape from h1. Of course there are many empty bottles on the table now, so I could be mistaken.

Yes, that is the correct first move now show the full solution and show why other first moves fail.