Queen vs. Rook Endgame (FULL Tutorial/Guide)

In this video I teach you how to win one of the most difficult endgames in chess: Queen vs. Rook. There are way too many positions to memorize, but I listed pretty much all of them in my lichess study.

You don't actually need to memorize all of those positions/variations to win consistently against humans, computers, and the tablebase. Focus on learning the main patterns, and the main lines of each variation.

Finally, this endgame happens very rarely (less than 1 in 1000 classical games). So if you just want to improve at chess, there are many other better things you can do besides learning this endgame.

0:00 Introduction
0:45 Tablebase Recap
2:04 Useful Patterns For Pushing The King Back
4:38 Queen Too Close!?
5:41 The Philidor Position
9:40 The Line Pattern
11:55 The Line Pattern, White's Move
13:32 2nd Rank Defense Pattern
15:27 2nd Rank Defense, Rook Moves Away 1
21:47 2nd Rank Defense, Rook Moves Away 2
22:36 2nd Rank Defense, Rook Moves Away 3
23:06 2nd Rank Defense, Rook Moves Away 4
23:29 2nd Rank Defense, Rook Moves Away 5
23:45 2nd Rank Defense, White's Move 1
26:01 2nd Rank Defense, White's Move 2
32:55 2nd Rank Defense, White's Move 3
40:03 2nd Rank Defense, White's Move 4
44:30 2nd Rank Defense, White's Move 5
45:06 3rd Rank Defense, Type 1
57:37 3rd Rank Defense, Type 2
1:01:13 3rd Rank Defense, Type 1, Black's Move
1:03:07 3rd Rank Defense, Type 2, Black's Move
1:05:46 4th Rank Defense (Optional Variation)
1:11:43 4th Rank Defense, Type 1
1:15:16 4th Rank Defense, Type 2 (Crazy Variation!)
1:22:00 4th Rank Defense, Type 1, Black's Move
1:26:14 4th Rank Defense, Type 2, Black's Move (Nightmare Variations)
1:35:48 Miscellaneous 1 (Back Rank Squeeze)
1:38:32 Miscellaneous 2 (Back Rank Squeeze 2)
1:40:12 Miscellaneous 3 (King Escape)
1:44:00 Miscellaneous 4 (Rook Moves Away)
1:45:20 Miscellaneous 5 (Queen Hides Behind King)
1:47:26 Miscellaneous 6 (Rosette)
1:50:09 Practice vs. Computers!

[davesharratt]

My own notes for working through these diagrams especially. Timestamps for critical patterns
2:42 Q controls square in front of K allowing close approach with no more checks
3:03 Q moved away diagonally to maintain control in front of king and allow check behind R
3:42 K opposition and Q attack on rook can lead to Re6?? allowing Qe8+, Kf6 forced, Qe5+ fork protected by K, Qxd6+
5:48 phiidor triangulation to achieve zugzwang
7:40 black response to philidor - if R moves to any red square it is # or R fork in one move - make sure you can find all of those
8:20 R moves to one of four green squares then give Qd4+ and at least one further check on long diagonal before fork becomes available
10:49 Qd8 attacks R but from a slight distance avoiding stalemate traps, controls square in front of K
11:35 R away, check, all K moves lead to fork
12:03 triangulation from offset position to achieve zugzwang
13:25 how easily discovered checks allow the K to enclosed the opposition and force moves that lead to forks
14:20 K opposition second rank, Qa8 key move leads to two options, slowly drive opposition across second tank through checks into philidor, or R splits from K allowing new patterns into fork
16:03 check pattern avoiding counter checks until you can move K closer
16:29 all but one K move leads to immediate fork
16:33 again, many K moves lead to immediate fork
16:41 K advances

[friendsmart]

This is only video available for complete guide for rook and queen end game

Thanks bro 👍

[dark.E-]

You are a literal saint. I was going to branch into all of these variations on my own being an average player. This saves an ungodly amount of work!!! <3

[bryanryan]

Oh jeez this turned into a 2 hour video. Ill watch it one day.

[LionelNollitsac]

Thank you very much. I am preparing a lecture for my chess students on this theme, and your video was a great help !

[elajedrezdelmundo]

It is very difficult to find tutorials of queen vs rook, except for the Philidor position. Thank you so much for this vid :)

[GarySlegg]

Thanks for this, it's very comprehensive

[rogergeyer]

This is great. Thorough and the positions are beautiful, and how you explain the concepts and positions is terrific. It's nice to see someone be thorough and accurate in this internet age of so much haste and "hand-waving" vs. precise analysis. Kudos for the effort.

But for practical play in tournaments, I'd FAR rather invest that time and brain space into PRACTICAL knowledge of LOTS of COMMON endgames. Like Rook endings. Like King and pawn endings. Like when to transition to a winning practical end game. Like lots of subtleties of opposition, which is HUGE in MANY King endgames.

This is actually better than I'd expect to find in ANY ending book, except perhaps ECE. But this presentation is SO much more practical, if one wanted to actually learn this ending well.

[ardakaraaslan]

Best guide on this topic that i could find after days of going through everything else i came upon! thank you !

[shahmatsimplex]

Excellent Job!! Great video on my favorite endgame and possibly the best on the subject here on the tube. One can get the major points here and along with Derek Grimmels course should be able to beat any player in this endgame. Im amazed how Philidor was able to come up and study the endgames that are very critical to becoming a good chess player in modern times. These positions could not have arisen in his otb games, since his opponents were very weak and would have been checkmated long before the endgame. This shows me that Philidor was a genius ahead of his time. I also liked your video on CC cheating. I cannot stand that site and play on lichess or square off instead.

[enaamkharboutli]

Awesome explanation and compilation for all Q vs R variations 👍👍

[muthu]

Even better explained than john nuns pawnless endgame book

[emport]

legendary video man, such an interesting endgame

[jasonc]

1:38:53
8/3k4/5Q2/8/3K4/8/8/r7 w - - 0 1

Least complicated method for me:

1 Qf7+

... Kd8 2 Qd5+
...Ke7 3 Qb3 (main line)
...Ke8 3 Ke5 +=
...Kc7 (or ...Kc8) 3 Qc4+ Kb7 (...Kd6 4 Qb4+ main line; ...Kd7 4 Kd5 Ra5+ (...Rd1+ 5 Kc5 +-) 5 Ke4 Kd8 6 Qb4 +-) 4 Qb3+ Ka7 5 Kc5 +=

...Kc6 (or ...Kc8) 2 Qc4+ (first line)

main line: ...Kd6 2 Qd5+ Ke7 (...Kc7 3 Qc4+ first line) 3 Qb3
...Rf1 4 Qb4+ Kd8 5 Ke5 +-
...Ra7 4 Qb4+ Kf7 (...Kd7 5 Kd5 +=) 5 Ke5 +=
...Kf6 4 Qc3 += (...Ra4+ 5 Kd5+ Kg5 6 Ke5; ...Ra6 5 Kd5+ Kf7 or Kg5 6 Ke5; ...Ra7 5 Kd5+ Kf7 6 Ke5)
...Kf8 4 Qb4+ (followed by 5 Ke5 +=)
...Kd8 4 Kc4 Ra8 (...Rc1+ or Re1 5 Kd5 +=) 5 Qb6+ Kc8 6 Kc5 +=
...Kd7 4 Kc4 Ra7 (...Rc1+ or Re1 5 Kd5 +=) 5 Qb5+ Kc7 6 Kc5 +=

main line continued: ...Kd6 4 Qb4+ Ke6 (...Kd7 5 Ke5 +=) 5 Kc5
...Rg1 6 Qc4+ Ke7 7 Qe2+ Kd7 8 Qd3+ Kc8 9 Qe3 +=
...Rc1+ 6 Kb6 Kf5 7 Qd4 Rb1+ 8 Ka7 +-
...Kf5 6 Qb5 Re1 (...Rd1 7 Kb6+ +-; ...Rh1 7 Kd4+ Kg4 8 Qe2+ Kg3 9 Ke3 +=) 7 Qd7+ Kf6 8 Qd4+ Ke6 9 Qg4+ Kf7 10 Kd6 +-

+= here means "progress"
+- means "wins the rook"

[cydstudios]

You just earned a sub, God bless you🙏.

[AbouTaim-Lille]

Every pattern has a significant algorithm. If you memorize it you can solve the pattern.

[slimmamba]

Please also cover the games of the upcoming 2023 World Championship.

[B-AM-mh]

Very good video. Even though it is NOT "the first videos on this is yourube history". It is a copy of Derek Grimmel video series from 12 years ago.

[OworBenard]

This is excellent but damn, the variations are a tonne

[runningrock]

bruh i ahm so higgh rightt now.
like hsow did i get? here?
wha am i watching like mahn dis shit crazy yo

good video mahn i aint hatinbg but what da