Black to move. Can Black win this?
3r4/R7/8/8/8/8/1p2K3/1k6 b – – 0 1
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This is a standard Lucena position. 1… Rd4 wins.
Or rather 1… Rd5.
No, Black cannot win this. The above posters are wrong. I am right.
There are many ways to win. 1… g5! is good enough.
2. Rg2 Re5
3. Kd6 Ra5
4. Rg4 Kg7
etc.
1… Re5! is the standard move kn own from a long time back.
umesh, you have black going in the wrong direction, the pawn is on b2
as jmac said, this is the lucena position 1…rd5 wins
Susan’s diagrams are often confusing, because she shows it from either direction 🙂
Yes, the famous Lucena 1…Rd5 wins. To tell the truth, any black move that doesn’t lose the rook immediately will win, because White doesn’t have much to do to avoid the Lucena technique.
In spite of playing for 41 years off-and-on, I’ve never had a Lucena position occur. I’ve only had one Philidor R+P vs P defense, and that was in a skittles game. But you have to know them.
It’s called “Brückenbau” in German as the rook builds his king a bridge.
Just as information to those who are interested.
Good morning and a nice day to everyone out there reading this. 🙂
Jochen
Why is Lucena credited for this ending? There must be at least seven other ways to win this won position. Guessing, I am.
‘the rook builds his king a bridge.’
I fail to see a bridge, let alone a rook building the king a bridge?! Can someone explain please?
‘Building a bridge’ =
1. … Rd5, then next move Black plays 2… Kc2. Then comes 3.Rc7+ Kb3 4.Rb7+ Kc3 5.Rc7+ Kb4, 6.Rb7+ Rb5, which wins.
I fail to see a bridge, let alone a rook building the king a bridge?! Can someone explain please?
The white rook can no longer check the black king and White cannot prevent the pawn from queening. Black’s shielding his king and pawn with the rook in this way is known as “building a bridge”.
The position is incorrectly attributed to Lucena. It was actually Salvio, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucena_position
I had Lucena position twice, once in online blitz and another time in OTB game, both times with the bishop pawn.