Lucena Position - Introduction

Introduction

The so-called Lucena position is named after the Spaniard Luis Ramírez de Lucena, although is something of a misnomer, because the position does not in fact appear in his book on chess, Repetición de Amores e Arte de Axedrez (1497). It does appear, however, in Alessandro Salvio's Il Puttino (1634), a romance on the career of the chess player Leonard da Cutri, and it is in that form that it is given here (Müller & Lamprecht 2001:179). Salvio attributes it to Scipione Genovino (Hooper & Whyld 1992:238).

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:

• the pawn is any pawn except a rook pawn
• the pawn has advanced to the seventh rank
• the attacking king (the one with the pawn) is on the queening square of its pawn
• the attacking rook cuts off the opposing king from the pawn by at least one file
• the defending rook is on the file on the other side of the pawn

An obvious approach by White (in the position above) such as

1. Rd1+ Ke7

2. Kc7

gets nowhere. Black can simply harass the white king with checks, and White makes no progress:

2... Rc2+

3. Kb6 Rb2+

4. Ka7 Ra2+

5. Kb8