King Vs King and X

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The mating of a king with minimal material.

King Vs King and: Rook

Rook

Sometimes a player has a chance to reach a position where there is just a rook.  Instead of trying to reach that position they instead go the murky rout in an attempt to reach an even greater advantage.  Why?  they might not confident that they can mate the king in 50 moves. Perhaps they want to end with more flare.  This section is the answer to the first question!

Take this starting position:

  1. Rd8 Ke4 -- White cuts off half the board, black tries to stay in the middle.
  2. Kb2 Ke5 -- White starts the march to the king, black tries to stay in the middle.
  3. Kc3 Ke4 -- White is almost ready to pounce, black still knows that the center is life.

White wants to get his king directly across from black, but have it whites turn.  White can not simply move his king to c4, though he is across from blacks king, it is blacks turn.  So white throws a move away.

  1. Rd1 Ke5
  2. Kc4 Ke4
  3. Re1+

Now white shows his superiority,  Black has no choice but to cede the e-file.  One level closer to the edge of the board.

  1. ... Kf5 -- Still trying to stay in the center.
  2. Kd5 Kf4
  3. Re8 Kf3 -- Black not wanting to be forced back another level stays away from whites king.
  4. Kd4 Kf2

Black in his effort to stay away from coming across whites king has made another mistake,  he is now one level closer to the side bottom of the board.  White realizing this, changes so that black will be mated along the bottom.

  1. Re3 Kg2
  2. Ra3 Kf2  -- White moves his rook out of the way, black still hopes to prevent mate.
  3. Rb3 Kg2 -- White needed to ditch another move.
  4. Kf4 Kh2  -- White creates a ZugZwang, that is black has no good moves and must pick from bad ones.
  5. Rg3 Kh1 -- White changes sides again and now black is stuck along the h-file.

The end is near, black has been forced back to a side.  Black needed to hold of mate for 50 moves to reach a draw by 50 move rule, but it is less then 20 and black does not have a chance.

  1. Rg8 Kh2 -- White getting his rook our of the way.
  2. Kf3 Kh1 -- Black can not go across from whites king, he has no more files to give up.
  3. Kf2 Kh2 -- Black has no choice, Zugzwang again, he has only one legal move.
  4. Rh8++  -- Black is toast in 18 short moves.

You see there is no need to fear a  rook vs. king ending.  If you see a way for force this, then you see a way to force mate!!