Hold the draw for 20 moves · You play black
ProThe standard draw with a rook against rook and rook pawn when the attacking rook stands in front of its pawn. The defending rook attacks the pawn from the side, the king stays on g7 and h7, and the white rook never gets free.
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Josef Vančura found this defence in 1924, and it is still the standard way to draw a rook ending a pawn down when the pawn is a rook pawn. White has a pawn on a6 and the rook in front of it on a8; your king is on g7, your rook on f2, the white king on c1. Black to move, twenty moves to hold.
The white rook on a8 has a job: guard the pawn and help it forward. Play Rf6 and attack a6 from the side. Now the rook cannot leave a8 without losing the pawn, and if the pawn steps to a7 it is stuck there: your rook moves behind it to a6 and the white rook is walled in on a8.
Your king stays on g7 and h7. With your king on f7, g6 or h6, the white rook gets free with a check or a skewer and the pawn goes through.
If the white king walks over to support the pawn, it has to come into range of your rook. Check it from behind or from the side until it gives up, then return to the sixth rank or to a6. Several rook moves hold the first position, Ra2 behind the pawn and a check on f1 among them; Rf6 is the set-up that holds without calculation.
Play Black. Your first move puts the rook on the sixth rank; after that your king moves only between g7 and h7 and your rook answers the white king with checks. Twenty moves without losing the rook or letting the pawn promote is the draw.
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