Similar Positions May Be Drawn
de la Villa, position 10.4| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | ||
| 8 | 8 | ||||||||
| 7 | 7 | ||||||||
| 6 | 6 | ||||||||
| 5 | 5 | ||||||||
| 4 | 4 | ||||||||
| 3 | 3 | ||||||||
| 2 | 2 | ||||||||
| 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h |
Not all similar positions are wins. In this position, Black draws because he can safely check from the side. For this defense to work, there must be at least three files between the defending rook and the attacking king, and the defending king must be positioned such that it doesn't block the checks; that is, the defending king is on the "short side" of the pawn (the one with fewer files between the pawn and the edge of the board) (de la Villa 2008:127–28). (See the "short side defense" at rook and pawn versus rook endgame for more details.)
Read more about this topic: Lucena Position
Famous quotes containing the words similar, positions and/or drawn:
“So-called professional mathematicians have, in their reliance on the relative incapacity of the rest of mankind, acquired for themselves a reputation for profundity very similar to the reputation for sanctity possessed by theologians.”
—G.C. (Georg Christoph)
“Extreme positions are not succeeded by moderate ones, but by contrary extreme positions.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“All that stock of arguments [the skeptics] produce to depreciate our faculties, and make mankind appear ignorant and low, are drawn principally from this head, to wit, that we are under an invincible blindness as to the true and real nature of things.”
—George Berkeley (1685–1753)