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I'm familiar with the technique of drawing this endgame with White:

[fen "8/R4pk1/6p1/7p/7P/6P1/p4PK1/r7 w - - 0 1"]

However, I faced an endgame yesterday that's objectively a draw, but didn't know how to defend it with white:

[fen "3R4/4kp2/6p1/3p3p/7P/3r2P1/5PK1/8 w - - 0 1"]

I didn't know where to put the White rook. The Black king was annoying my rook the whole time and the rook didn't have a wide range to stay behind the pawn. And when I started my lateral checks, the king started marching forward and put more pressure! Then Black continued to push the d pawn and infiltrated with his king and won the endgame. Any feedback with some reasonable lines on how to draw this endgame?

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    The general plan against an extra queenside pawn that is not yet on the 2d rank (as in your first example) is to harass the opponent king until you can grab a pawn on the kingside (here, f7), then push and exchange as many pawns as possible, sac your rook against the Black passer, and and draw with K+P vs K+R if the bK is far enough from your pawn. With bPd5 and Black very active as in your position, it is not obvious at all that you can save this... Black has good winning chances imho.
    – Evargalo
    Dec 7, 2021 at 7:28
  • On the bright side, your K needs only two steps to stop the passer. Just for fun, I placed the bR on e7 (clearly a good square, protecting the pawn chain and cutting off the wK), plus wRd8 wKf3/bKd4 bPd5. Stockfish gives -2 to -3, depending on small variations in the position. I encourage you to try a few variations yourself.
    – Hauke Reddmann
    Dec 7, 2021 at 9:38

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The only way is to remember your pawn endgames and which pawn king file results in draw and which are losing and make sure you get it to white= pawn, king vs black= king, rook keep your king in front of pawn. and pawn on 2nd file I believe. that way you can go around pawn for cover but nothing can flank your right side.

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