I Was Wrong About This Endgame 😢 

🤓🧠🧠🧠🤯

​@@Glitch_Real 💀

Yes, as is true for just about every chess principle, the real answer is "it depends" - it depends on the position. Generally speaking, a rook can't stop two connected pawns on the sixth rank, but factor in the placement of the two kings, and there are going to be exceptions to the rule. In the position shown in the video, White has a tricky tactical sequence to save the draw.

Exactly. The rook can't stop the pawns by itself, but the rook and the king can do it together. Just as in other positions.

Truth

And then you shred the book and burned it to ashes. 🔥

​@@mikahamari6420 and snorted the ashes

"Creativity is the ability to recognize situations where the rules don't apply." --Me

@@zanti4132 I love that!

@@zanti4132 That is well said. 👍 Many people think it makes them different when they say "No" if others say "Yes", but it is just echoing others, totally predictable and rule-based behaviour. Creativity and rules are not the opposite, as you said. If everything in Chess was just mechanical following of principles, it wouldn't have retained and grown its success even today. I think top engines solve this "creativity" element by their super fast calculation of variations, because they are not creative. But neural networks have come closer this. I still love to watch the games in which Alpha Zero strangled Stockfish by making its pieces immobilized. At least for human player that would have been very creative way to take the edge.

Big 🧠 🤯

I wondered about a2. I missed the b pawn pin! Good catch.

Wouldn't it play out the same, except at the point where you move the rook to B1 to force a pawn move, you move to A1, and then the B2 pawn is pinned to the king on H2 when you take the A2 pawn?

Nope. As Doug points out, you just pin the b2 pawn instead of forking a2. Everything else is the same.

If the white king is on f7 and black moves Kh8, white simply moves Rh1#. That ends the game right there; black never gets a chance to promote the b pawn.

@@Dausuul ah my bad

It plays out the same, except if the black king moves down to h2. In that case, the rook goes to a1 instead of b1. When black moves b2, white responds with Rxa2, and instead of a fork, it's a pin: The b2 pawn can't move without putting black's king in check. So the king has to move, and white plays Rxb2 and goes on to win.

No

Yes

It plays out the same, except the rook pins the b2 pawn instead of forking the a2 pawn.