A couple of important Rook ending themes

One crucial aspect of chess mastery is knowledge of certain types of endings that are known to be won or drawn. Endgame knowledge saves you time over the board with respect to calculation time. Rook and pawn endings are likely the most common endings so more time should be spent acquiring knowledge and undertanding the intricacies in these type of endings.



In the following 3 minute game played at ICC, RiskyMonster of Iceland has a Rook and three pawns and his opponent has a Rook and two pawns with the a2 black pawn one square from queening. White's King is tactically confined to the the second rank, otherwise a rook check will  allow the a2 pawn to promote to a Queen.

Also White's c2 pawn is immobilized because of a skewer also along the second rank after the black rook moves threatening a queen promotion. Also note that  White's rook is stuck on the A file.

So despite White's extra pawn, Black can easily draw by moving just moving his king around.