White to move. Is this a win, draw, or loss for White? How should White proceed?
8/2pp2pp/8/2PP1P2/1p5k/8/PP4p1/6K1 w – – 0 1
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I move a6 to win !
Ed
a6 to win results in passed pawn
Ed
a6 to win results in passed pawn
Win for White. Next move: a4
White wins?
White wins?
I think the key is sacrificing the white pawn with f6, thus stopping the black king from getting back, after which wins with kxg2 and advancing the a-pawn.
oh, and now that I look at it further, I think after that, you will also have to sac the c and d pawns as a further block!
1) Kxg2 Kg4 2) a4 bxa3 3)bxa3 kxf5 4) a4 Ke5 5 ) d6!! cxd6 6) c6!! dxc6 7) a5 Kd5 ( c5? 8. a6 c4 9) a7 c3 10 a8=Q 1-0) 8)a6 Kc5 9) a7 Kb6 10 a8 =Q 1-0 White wins… awesome problem
1) Kxg2 Kg4 2) a4 bxa3 3)bxa3 kxf5 4) a4 Ke5 5 ) d6!! cxd6 6) c6!! dxc6 7) a5 Kd5 ( c5? 8. a6 c4 9) a7 c3 10 a8=Q 1-0) 8)a6 Kc5 9) a7 Kb6 10 a8 =Q 1-0 White wins… awesome problem
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Kxg2 Kg4
a4 bxa3
bxa3 and then the a pawn promotes to aqueen
Oh my goodness. This took ages to work out.
1) It looks like White will Queen first with a4, but Black simply ignores it with Kg3 and although White gets the Queen, Black mates with the h-pawn.
2) So, try again. Let’s take the pawn first with Kxg2, Kg5 a4, bxa3 bxa3, Kf6 and the King goes behind the pawns to stop the mate
3) So lets try f6 first, since this stops Kf6 and the King will lose a tempo coming in front of the pawns. Additionally, if Black wastes a tempo he cannot mate since we now have a Queen check on g8. However, after f6 gxf6 (forced), a4 Black is still in time to mate with Kg3 again and the Queen check is a move too late
4) So we are not forced to take the g-pawn first and waste a tempo. The line is now f6 gxf6, Kxg2 Kf5, a4 bxa3, bxa3 Kf4, a4 Ke5, but now a5 Kxd5, a6 Kc6 stops the pawn
5) So we need to gain another tempo and we finally reach the line f6 gxf6, Kxg2 Kf5, a4 bxa3, bxa3 Kf4, a4 Ke5, d6! and either …c6 blocks the King and White wins, or …cxd6, c6! dxc6 (forced) then a5 and the pawn Queens
So White can win (I think!). But it’s seriously convoluted! Thanks, my brain hurts.
1) a4! Pa4 en passant
2) pxp and the a pawn has a clear path to a8!!
a2 to a4. bxa4, en passant. bxa. the a pawn then walks to become a queen. win for white.
a2 to a4. b takes a. b takes a. the white a pawn walks to become a queen. white wins.
White loses trying to queen the pawn with the immediate a3, after which black plays Kg3 and wins with h5-h4-h2-h3#. This takes 5 moves, whereas it takes 6 to queen the pawn.
White draws trying to stop this idea by playing Kxg2 first. Black draws the game with Kg5-f6-e7-d8-c8-b7 and is in time to stop the pawn. It takes 6 moves for the black king to get to b7, 6 moves for the pawn to queen, and by playing Kxg2 white gives black a head start.
White wins by preparing Kxg2 in a clever way, such that white can both avoid checkmate and queen the pawn..
f6 for blocking the trip of the king
I think white should be able to win this.
White can get a passed pawn with the pawns on the a and b files and Black’s king, even if he begins moving across the board immediately, will be one move too late to prevent queening.
The pawns on c and d do not seem to be going anywhere until a king arrives and even if Black can deal with the pawns, White’s pawn on the a file will have queened long before Black’s pawns reach the end.
Black’s king cannot force White’s king off the g1 square to queen his pawn so White’s king can just stay there until he gets a queen and then wins the game.
White Shouldn’t rush with 1. a4 since Black plays Kg3 and it’s mate
1. f6 gxf6
2. Kxg2
1-0
white’s first move must capture pawn on g2 because if he does not then black king will move on to g3 square and whiite king wil paralized and will be mated on spot after queen of H pawn so,
1. K:g2.. kh4
2. a3.. b:a3
3. b:a3..k:f5
4. a4.. ke5
5. a5.. k:d5
6. a6.. kc6
7. a7..kb7
nd there white lost in fact white will be lost in all lines
Draw with best play.
White wins
Seems to be a cousin of the following busted puzzle from couple of years ago that I found in my files:
8/2pp1ppp/8/1pPP1PPk/8/8/PP6/6K1 w – – 0 0
A couple of commenters have the correct first move, and one has the right second move, but it isn’t enough to provide a complete solution since white must still find a trick in the middle line to prevent black from winning or drawing.
Rocketboy did a great job writing it up!
a4 (or anything else) 0-1
Kxg2 1/2-1/2
f6 gxf6 Kxg2 1-0