Rook behind own passed pawn: win In the first diagram, White's rook is behind his passed pawn on the a-, and the position is won for White. The winning technique is straightforward: Move the king towards the passed pawn. The defending king must also move that way, otherwise he will be forced to give up his rook for the pawn. If the attacking king can penetrate no further because the defending king is in opposition, use tempo moves by the rook up and down the file. Once pawn moves are exhausted, then the defender runs out of options. If the defending rook retreats, then advance the pawn. The defender cannot keep up this strategy. If the defending king sidesteps away from the pawn, the attacking king moves towards the pawn, and forces its advance. The defender will have to give up his rook. So the only option is for the defending king to move towards the pawn. The attacking king penetrates the pawn structure as far as possible. If the defender wins the passed pawn, an exchange of rooks ensues and the resulting pawn ending is an easy win for the attacker. At the right moment, the attacking rook abandons the pawn and joins in the attack on the kingside pawns. The 34th game of the 1927 World Championship match between Alekhine and Capablanca is a classic example of the technique (or see annotated text). The position is after White's 54.Ra4. White won on move 82. Rook behind enemy passed pawn: usually a draw Similar positions with the rook behind the enemy passed pawn are usually a draw, but not always. The next position is after White's 35th move in the eighth game of the Henrique Mecking versus Victor Korchnoi Candidates Quarterfinal match in 1974. White will move Ra6 as soon as possible. Black's rook is in front of his passed pawn on the a-file, and the game ended in a draw on move 55. In this game between Viswanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik from the 2007 World Chess Championship, Black's rook is in front of his passed pawn; the white rook will get behind the pawn: 36. Kf2 h5 37. g3 a5 38. Ra7 Black advanced the pawn to a2, but could do no better than to exchange the passed pawn and rook for the white rook, reaching a king and pawn endgame that ended in a draw (see