The third rank defense is the most important defense in the king and rook versus king, rook and pawn endgame. A lot of people refer to it as the Philidor position, but this name is also used for some other endgame positions.
There is already a lot of information about this position available on the internet, [...]
Let’s have a look at the diagram below. White is two pawns ahead, but it is Black’s turn to move. Is he able to get a draw?
White’s bishop is a bad bishop. It has the wrong color and will not be able to drive away Black’s king from the promotion square of the rook pawn. [...]
The following diagram is a nice exercise about a chess position that looks rather easy at first sight. It’s White turn to move. Is this a draw?
It’s White’s turn to move, but Black will gain a tempo because of the check by f4+. So at first sight it may look like a draw, but as [...]
The game between Konstantin Aseev and Vladimir Bagirov played in Leningrad 1989 is one of the games that perfectly illustrates some of the main concepts of the endgame with bishops of opposite colour.
Minor promotion or underpromotion is the promotion of a pawn to a knight, bishop or rook. The player that has moved the pawn to the promotion square has to decide which piece to select: a queen, a rook, a bishop or a knight. It can not remain a pawn and according to the FIDE rules [...]