The Five Minute Rook Endgame Test

[@Isaiah_McIntosh]

Good lord. I'm an FM with 1500 level rook endings. I knew my endings were weak but this is pretty scary.

[@syedraiyan2386]

I am 1700 with 1500 level rook endings.

[@havishsripada8201]

Lol I am the complete opposite I am a 2000 with IM/GM level rook endgames.

[@kamalofdeka]

I am 1406 Fide but I cracked 4 and specifically the 5 th one in a few seconds ( of course I knew similar idea of stalemate beforehand)

[@nobroo5264]

I solved all of those with ease. I am rated 2200 but I think those are just some theoretical positions and don't say that much about your actual level of endgame play. Practical endings are also very important and those were basically just some practical applications of the Philidor position.

[@ChessDojo]

several alert viewers noticed that an earlier version of this vid had a wrong side 'to move' - a crime among puzzlemasters! - YT wouldn't let me fix it with an annotation, so I had to reload. Many thanks to SayChess and Marty Cortinas!

[@johnh5259]

The next time you upload it, please show the game from Black's perspective when it is Black to move. In other words, put the 8th rank at the bottom of the screen, so I'm looking at the board as I would if I had that position in an actual game.

[@clarencepsaila4743]

the true beauty of crystal clear explanation and optimal position selection - I learnt more in these few minutes than I would have flipping a 100 pages of Dvoretsky Endgames :)

[@computerflight2145]

Great puzzles and a great benchmark for rook endgames! Thanks for fixing it.

[@RedGaming23]

Beautiful example there explaining clearly why you don’t want a g pawn if you can keep your f pawn. And loved the philidor which converted into a type of lucena 👍🏻

[@screamingliner]

Great fun test. Thanks for this, and for the fix!

[@zarsblackhorse123]

Great theoretical rook endgames examples. Must for all chess players. All of them are presented in IM Silman's Complete Endgame Book.

[@stevenorth1564]

My only suggestion is to please provide a resource where we can learn more about the Philidor and Lucina (sic?) rook endgames. I agree with the other comments… Makes me realize how little I know about rook endgames

[@derSchachstratege]

Great Test! Under Pressure its really different. I couldnt solve the 1st in 30 sec, but easily before u solved. But i get the Job done in the 5th. So its really crazy sometimes ;) Looking for more Stress-Tests :-) Regards

[@christopherjohnson1873]

My notes/guesses for each 1. Rf1 black loses [I knew that black could draw if they could magic their rook to the 6th, I just didn't see Rb4 as a way of making that happen] 2. Kxg3 winning [I knew the passive defense works against the knight pawn but not the bishop pawn, so I knew this] 3. Ra2 win [I don't really understand why I thought this idea was winning when it obviously transposes to a Phillidor, lol] 4. Rg2 draw [I missed the idea] 5. Kc1 (Kb2 with stalemate if the skewer) passive defense draw [I saw the stalemate so I actually got this one right] 2/5 in total

[@edpabalan6359]

Thank you, Jesse! Great test and boot camp!

[@morgansteiner5823]

So good I had to watch it twice!

[@lenaweingraber4211]

Video starts at 2:08

[@ishanr8697]

Better than I thought, 4/5 (last position fooled me, I totally missed the idea of giving up the rook for stalemate)

[@TravelingMooseMedia]

I am rated 1500 fide and I got 4 correct and calculated through, and the last one I knew I needed to blockade on b1 or b2 since the h or g pawn and passive rook draws but I calculated Rf4, Ka3, Kc1 and missed Ka2 preventing me from going to the b2 square

[@lukastux3024]

This shocked me.. I thought I was decent at rook endings 😭 Great explanations!

[@edpabalan6359]

Thank you, Jesse! Great test! And great rook endings boot camp!

[@thaddtermeer6688]

Yes sir. Jesse is a great advisor!

[@Socrates...]

Thank you Jesse

[@davidmariomendiola2229]

Ouch. What the heck. I spent ten minutes on the first one and missed it. An hour wouldn't have been sufficient. Similarly missed the rest. The closest I got to solving one was proudly ELIMINATING Kc1 as an option on Puzzle 5. My hand certainly didn't know these.

[@fogowar2022]

I lost time in the initial confusion of playing black with the board oriented for white.

[@Evilanious]

2/5 Sad. 1500 level rook endings. I thought I knew the Philidor position but I tried to check from the wrong side. I was happy to see the stalemate trick. But that's probably because I study much more tactics than anything else.

[@ChessDojo]

Gotta work on those endgames!

[@WahMyNose]

1700 USCF,

[@alexf0101]

got everything wrong despite studying rook endgames, sigh

[@ChessDojo]

Not so easy!

[@janpeterbogers3818]

Is Kf8 an alternative solution in the first one? I figured to walk to the short sight. Don't see how white can progress.

[@ChessDojo]

Even if it works, it would be much harder to hold than going for the Philidor defense

[@almostsimple7759]

This kind of test is an amazing idea, please more of those!! [Please don't continue reading this if you have not yet done the test.] One tiny criticism, maybe it is just me though: In the first position my immediate reflex was "What is wrong with 1. Ke6, this must be winning", then I convinced myself for about 20 seconds only to read that it is Black's move...it is a little bit too much information at once imo (given the fact that we have to be very quick to solve the puzzle), I only saw the position and the timer, and on most websites you see the position from the side which is to move. Now I don't complain about this being different here (we should also be able to solve the exercises with flipped board), but maybe you could mention beforehand which side is to move, or just say "It is always Black to move" or sth. like this. In the first position, 1...Rb4! clearly is the easiest way to draw, reaching Philidor by force but 1...Rh4! works as well, though one should have seen that the only challenging try 2. Kd6!? (after anything else Black gets to the Philidor position as well) Black needs to play 2... Re4!, adopting what in the "100 Endgames You Must Know" book is referred to as the "Kling and Horwitz" defensive setup. This is only slightly more difficult than Philidor but really worth knowing since Philidor is sometimes just out of reach in similar positions.

[@ChessDojo]

while Rh4 does draw it is still completely wrong :-)

[@GerardCondon]

In the first postition I went for the Kling and Horwitz position straight away. I confused this position with the diagram from the "100 Endgames You Must Know" book but the rook is on f5 in that book instead of f4. In the example in the video though after Rb4, Kc5 how do you get to the Philidor position? Do you have to go for the K&H anyway?

[@almostsimple7759]

@@GerardCondon Haha, exactly same here, I was also immediately reminded on this position in "100 EYMK". So which move did you choose to get to Kling and Horwitz? Because with the rook on f5 in the starting position it is lost for Black, you just don't get the K&H defensive setup since you don't get the rook behind the pawn in time. Here 1...Rh4 (or 1...Rg4) achieve this since 2. Ke6 can be met with 2...Rh6+! (or 2...Rg6+), reaching Philidor. Jesse is of course completely right that if you spot 1...Rb4 and the idea behind this move, you have to go for it since it leads to a clean Philidor position. I guess this move just did not occur to me since intuitively I always want to put the rook as far away from the enemy king as possible. Regarding your questions: I think the simplest is to just wait with the rook on the b-file if White plays Kc5 (or Kc6), so just play ...Rb1/...Rb2. The point is that White cannot make progress with his king on the c-file, as soon as he poushes his pawn we just deliver rear checks forever. So White needs to play his king back to the d-file at some point (if he trades rooks with e.g. Rb6 we just take and draw the pawn ending), and then we can always just play ...Rb6, adopting the Philidor setup. So no, you don't have to go for K&H in this case.

[@GerardCondon]

@@almostsimple7759 Yeah. I'd have messed up anyway. Just checked the book and the rook was on the other side in that position. With the rook on h7 then you can go to the K&H position with Rf1. But in this position with the rook on a7, then Rf1 loses. I think the difference is that when the black king is forced to the side it can win a tempo on the white rook. Rook endings are hard! :)

[@g.h.g.1106]

Why not Rh4 in the first one? I thought it is the better side to Rb4 because it is farther from the King, thus less likely to be harrassed. Does it have to do with the positioning of the White king and pawn, or how do you select the correct side here?

[@csonpo8570]

If black plays Rh4 White plays Kd6 and now if black plays Rh6, white can block with e6 and is threatening checkmate soon after promoting the pawn. With Rb4, this is not possible

[@laurentsaltoflife9267]

Great test, a pity I was wrong on which side to move in the last one :-/

[@ChessDojo]

fair point, if YT allowed me to annotate the vid I'd put some big flashing light on the white to move!

[@essentiallyjesus]

This was sad... I got the 1200 problem wrong and got all of the other problems correct. jeez Great test!

[@Chessgonemad]

Funny enough the first one was haardest 😅 but maybe i should of thought Rb4 faster. I understand maybe this was probably sort of click bait but I think anybody over say 1500 should at least know all the ideas here even if they got the wrong answer.

[@marcodicesare2757]

I solved the last puzzle but not the first! What a shame, good tactics but bad theoretical knowledge

[@mrichards]

2000 on lichess and got 0/5 oops

[@pakchu2]

I played Rc8 in the last one because I thought I was playing black

[@charleskiesling9774]

lmao I got 1, 3 and 5