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I'm looking for a set of exercises (contained in a book, website, or chess engine) where I can practice what I know in regards to rook and pawn vs. rook endgames. I could find a friend to randomly place pieces on the board for me, but I don't see what would be in it for her or him.

Something ideal would be a website that displays a puzzle that I can solve, but the pawn would have to be on the a- or h-file and 7th rank. If I can set these parameters while randomizing the position of the rooks or king, that would be great.

Where can I find such a website, and if there isn't any, how can I create such an object? The object would set the pieces randomly on the board, with the exception of my selection. So if I select the pawn to be on a7 and the king to be on a8, it will randomly place the other pieces elsewhere. I'm only interested in the following pieces being on the board: A pair of kings, a pair of rooks, and one pawn.

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    Not quite the same as what you want, but I recall that at the Internet Chess Club (ICC) they had various bots for practicing mating an opponent, with KQ, KR, KBB, or KBN vs. K. The pieces would be randomized and the computer would play black. I don't think they had many other options though.
    – TMM
    Jun 17, 2017 at 19:00

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If you're looking for a truly random position, I'd just roll an eight-sided die a couple of times to determine the column and row of each piece. (If the position is illegal, just reroll.) You can then enter the position into a chess program and play against the engine. Here's an online dice roller in case you don't have physical ones, the one you're looking for is called the d8.

If you're looking to practice key positions in KRP vs. KR specifically, you'd probably be interested in John Nunn's Secrets of Rook Endings. I forgot how this book is organized exactly, but it contains almost all positions in this ending which are worth studying.

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  • That book actually inspired me to practice these sorts of problems, so if I don't remember the maneuver I just go back and review it.
    – Jossie Calderon
    Jun 8, 2017 at 8:59
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    Random dot org is faster than that dice rolling since we always need a large collection of random numbers per position: random.org/integers/…
    – PartyLovingHermit
    Jun 16, 2017 at 22:12
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I would go to Week In Chess, load the weekly games into Chessbase, and do some search filtering and play the game out at some point against a comp. When you fail (it will happen), then you can at least get an idea from the practical viewpoint of the players and review the completion of the game as played.

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  • How do I load the games into the Chessbase?
    – Jossie Calderon
    Jun 16, 2017 at 19:16
  • On windows, if you have installed chessbase, it would have set .pgn extensions to open Chessbase for all pgn files. Double-click the file will usually do it.
    – Priyome
    Jun 16, 2017 at 23:59
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I made a program.

Just run (button near the top) it until you get a legal position. Even if you add a black pawn, most of the time it should only take one try.

You could try downloading a python chess library that has a simple method which checks if the position is legal.

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