The Winning Method: Building A Bridge
The Lucena position| 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 |
| 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 |
In the Lucena position, the side with the pawn has a winning method that 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.
In this position, White can win with
- 1. Rd1+ Ke7
- 2. Rd4!
Now, if Black plays a waiting move, such as
- 2... Ra1
hoping to harass the white king with checks again as in the above variation, White continues
- 3. Kc7 Rc1+
- 4. Kb6 Rb1+
- 5. Kc6 Rc1+
(Or 5.Ka6 Ra1+.)
- 6. Kb5 Rb1+
- 7. Rb4!
The black rook can no longer check the white king and Black cannot prevent the pawn from queening (Ward 2004:48). White's shielding his king and pawn with the rook in this way was described as "building a bridge" by Aron Nimzowitsch (Hooper & Whyld 1992:238).
It is important that the white rook go initially to the fourth rank if Black uses his most active defense: repeatedly checking the white king. If Black abandons this defense, the white rook can build a bridge on the fifth rank. In the line above, after
- 5. Kc6
if Black moves
- 5... Ke6
there is a trap for White: if 6.Rd5?? (to build a bridge on the fifth rank) then 6...Rxb7! draws. However, if
- 6. Rd6+ Ke7
- 7. Rd5!
and White can build a bridge on the fifth rank by getting the rook to b5, the king to b6, and then the pawn can promote (Ward 2004:48–49) (position reflected):
- 7... Rc1+
- 8. Kb6 Rb1+
- 9. Rb5
and White wins.
Read more about this topic: Lucena Position
Famous quotes containing the words winning, building and/or bridge:
“I don’t go that fast in practice, because I need the excitement of the race, the adrenalin. The others might train more and be in better shape, but when I’m racing, I put winning before everything else. I don’t stop until the world gets gray and fuzzy around the edges.”
—Candi Clark (b. c. 1950)
“There is something about the literary life that repels me, all this desperate building of castles on cobwebs, the long-drawn acrimonious struggle to make something important which we all know will be gone forever in a few years, the miasma of failure which is to me almost as offensive as the cheap gaudiness of popular success.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)
“I see four nuns
who sit like a bridge club,
their faces poked out
from under their habits,”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)