Problem Challenge April

by ChessBase
4/20/2026 – Were you able to handle the four rook endgame studies we showed you recently? They were a little bit harder to solve than they looked. We now bring you all the intricacies and subtleties in short videos by IM Gauri Shankar, who works as a chess trainer in Chicago. And of course we give you full analysis in a ChessBase replayer, where you can switch on an engine to help resolve any residual questions.
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Here are the four rook endgame studies we gave you to solve:

In each case it is White to play and win. Here are the video explanations:

And here is a replayer with full line and details, with and engine available for further analysis. Note that the Timman position we used begins after move ten of the original study. 

Hope you enjoyed the challenge and learnt a lot from these remarkable studies.

About the author

Gauri Shankar is a chess coach, originally from India, who moved to the United States when he was ten years old. He made nine International Master norms, before gaining the full IM title. He works as a chess trainer in Chicago, where he currently resides.

Gauri's decade long experience teaching chess to thousands of children has helped him become a popular online chess content creator, making entertaining and educational videos on Twitch, Youtube, Instagram and Tiktok.

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