In rook against pawn everything turns on the race: can the stronger side's king get across to support the pawn. If the king is next to the rook, though, the rook stops the passer reliably and takes it, going into a won rook-against-king ending.
Here White has the king on c5 and a pawn on d5; Black has the king on c2 and the rook on h8. Black to move, and Black wins (per the tablebases): the rook brakes the d5 pawn with checks and from the front while the king comes up to destroy it.
The technique: the rook brakes a pawn best by attacking it from in front or by giving checks; a lone pawn without its king is doomed. This is the mirror image of the positions where the pawn wins instead.
Drag a piece onto the board, or click a piece and then click the squares. The cross beside the pieces sweeps every piece of that colour off the board, and a single piece can be dragged off the edge.
The pieces will be arranged into the chosen pattern.
It is the mating side to move. Find mate in one.
Openings, endgame positions and breakthrough studies - the set-up appears on the board.
The simplest way is to get behind it: the rook then holds every square in front of it, and the pawn cannot move without being lost.
Your own king has to come up: the rook alone may not cope once the pawn has reached the sixth or seventh rank.
If the pawn is already on the seventh with the king behind it and the rook is far away - then the rook may have to be given up for the pawn.
Build your own position in the board editor, read up on the rules of chess or run a tournament on your own positions in the free app.
Pairings are computed by bbpPairings, an open-source engine implementing the Dutch system by FIDE rules: score groups, floats on an odd field, colour alternation. Free to use.
proper rounds with correct pairings, not random matchups
a full circle, with the round count derived from the field
a light format with no tournament machinery
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