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Lucena position
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Lucena position
The Lucena position is a position in chess endgame theory where one side has a rook and a pawn and the defender has a rook. Karsten Müller said that it may be the most important position in endgame theory. It is fundamental in the rook and pawn versus rook endgame. If the side with the pawn can reach this type of position, they can forcibly win the game. Most rook and pawn versus rook endgames reach either the Lucena position (with the King of the stronger side in front of the pawn) or the Philidor position (with the defending King in front of the pawn) if played accurately. The side with the pawn will try to reach the Lucena position to win; the other side will try to reach the Philidor position to draw.
Rook and any number of pawns endgames, which occur in 8–10% of all games, may simplify to the Lucena position. As it is a known win, the player with the pawn will often try to reach the Lucena position, while the other player will try to prevent it. There is an alternate method for winning this type of position that works only for pawns on the c-file through the f-file (see Rook and pawn versus rook endgame § Simple method for bishop pawns and central pawns).
The Lucena position is, incorrectly, named after the Castillian Luis Ramírez de Lucena, since the position does not appear in his book on chess, Repetición de Amores e Arte de Axedrez (1497). The earliest preserved discussion of the position is in Alessandro Salvio's Il Puttino (1634), a romance on the career of the chess player Leonardo da Cutro, and it is in that form that it is given here. Salvio attributes it to Scipione Genovino. It is likely that the error arose from the sixth edition of the Handbuch des Schachspiels (1880), in which editor Constantin Schwede incorrectly attributed the position to "Lucena 96", possibly as a result of confusion over the references in Antonius van der Linde's 1874 work Das Schachspiel des XVI. Jahrhunderts.
The position is shown above and below (the position can be moved as a whole or mirrored so that the pawn is on any of the files b through g). White's aim is to either promote his pawn or else compel Black to give up his rook for it – either result will leave White with an overwhelming material advantage and a straightforward win. White has managed to advance his pawn to the seventh rank, but it is prevented from queening because his own king is in the way. White would like to move his king and then promote his pawn, but is prevented from moving to the a-file by the black rook, and prevented from moving to the c-file by the black king.
The essential characteristics of the position are:
A straightforward approach by White (in the position above) such as
gets nowhere. Black can simply harass the white king with checks, and White makes no progress:
In the Lucena position, the side with the pawn has a winning method that always works for any pawn except a rook pawn (i.e. on the a- or h-file). In some circumstances, it also works for a rook pawn.
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Lucena position
The Lucena position is a position in chess endgame theory where one side has a rook and a pawn and the defender has a rook. Karsten Müller said that it may be the most important position in endgame theory. It is fundamental in the rook and pawn versus rook endgame. If the side with the pawn can reach this type of position, they can forcibly win the game. Most rook and pawn versus rook endgames reach either the Lucena position (with the King of the stronger side in front of the pawn) or the Philidor position (with the defending King in front of the pawn) if played accurately. The side with the pawn will try to reach the Lucena position to win; the other side will try to reach the Philidor position to draw.
Rook and any number of pawns endgames, which occur in 8–10% of all games, may simplify to the Lucena position. As it is a known win, the player with the pawn will often try to reach the Lucena position, while the other player will try to prevent it. There is an alternate method for winning this type of position that works only for pawns on the c-file through the f-file (see Rook and pawn versus rook endgame § Simple method for bishop pawns and central pawns).
The Lucena position is, incorrectly, named after the Castillian Luis Ramírez de Lucena, since the position does not appear in his book on chess, Repetición de Amores e Arte de Axedrez (1497). The earliest preserved discussion of the position is in Alessandro Salvio's Il Puttino (1634), a romance on the career of the chess player Leonardo da Cutro, and it is in that form that it is given here. Salvio attributes it to Scipione Genovino. It is likely that the error arose from the sixth edition of the Handbuch des Schachspiels (1880), in which editor Constantin Schwede incorrectly attributed the position to "Lucena 96", possibly as a result of confusion over the references in Antonius van der Linde's 1874 work Das Schachspiel des XVI. Jahrhunderts.
The position is shown above and below (the position can be moved as a whole or mirrored so that the pawn is on any of the files b through g). White's aim is to either promote his pawn or else compel Black to give up his rook for it – either result will leave White with an overwhelming material advantage and a straightforward win. White has managed to advance his pawn to the seventh rank, but it is prevented from queening because his own king is in the way. White would like to move his king and then promote his pawn, but is prevented from moving to the a-file by the black rook, and prevented from moving to the c-file by the black king.
The essential characteristics of the position are:
A straightforward approach by White (in the position above) such as
gets nowhere. Black can simply harass the white king with checks, and White makes no progress:
In the Lucena position, the side with the pawn has a winning method that always works for any pawn except a rook pawn (i.e. on the a- or h-file). In some circumstances, it also works for a rook pawn.