Lasker
White to move. Is this a win, loss, or draw for White? No computer analysis please.
8/5pp1/7p/5P1P/2k3P1/2p5/5P2/2K5 w – – 0 1
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Classic endgame improvement
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I think 1. f6! is correct.
1. f6 gxf6
2. f4 Kd5
3. g5 fxg5
4. fxg5
and if hxg5, the h-pawn queens; if anything else, gxh6.
The f6-pawn cuts off the black king’s most direct route to h8. More importantly, it prevents black from playing f6, which appears to leave black well off against the immediate 1. g5.
loss for white.
The square of fire in this position is f6, so
1. f6 .. gxf6 (g6 loses quickly)
2. f4, followed by g5. I think that’s all!
This is the main line:
1. f6 gxf6 forced
2. f4 Kd4
3. g5 fxg5
4. fxg5 Ke5
5. gxh6 Kf6
6. Kc2 Zugzwang.
Any King move takes him away from the queening square h8. Thus 6..Kf5
7. h7 and queens.
g5 wins in all variations
1)f6 gxf6
2)f4 Kd5
3)g5 fxg5
4)fxg5 Ke5
5)gxh6 Kf6
5)Kc2 and Black is in zugzwang
1. f6 and white wins
f6,f4,g5 is not winning for white?
White wins!
1.f4 Kd4
2.g5 Ke5 (the same if pawn exchange)
3.f6! gxf6
4.g6! fxg6
5.hxg6 and wins!
It’s a win!
1. f6!
1. gf
2. f4
followed by g5 and the h pawn queens.
or
1. g6
2. g5
and again a pawn queens on the h file
1. f6, gxf6; 2.g5, hxg5; 3.h6 and White queens the h-pawn?
At first I thought White had good drawing chances with 1.f6 but now I think it may even win, ie 1…gxf 2.f4 Ke3 3.g5 fxg 4.fxg Kf4
5.gxh Kf6 6.Kd2 and Black is in zugzwang.
Apologies if I’ve missed something pretty obvious or the notation is wrong – I haven’t got a chessboard at work!
TimS
Whoops. Sorry – had wrong position in my head. Black’s King moves should be …Kd4-e5-f6, and White’s King’s move is Kc2.
TimS
1. f4 Kd4 2. g5 Ke4 3. f6 is a win for white, so Black must try:
1. f4 f6 2. g5 fg 3. fg h6 but now 4. f6 gf 5. h6 and White queens first and wins.
I first thought about 1.g5 but 1… f6 holds and wins for black.
So the only way to win is
1.f6! threats fxg7 so
1…. gxf6 is forced
2.f4 threats 3.g5
2…. Kd5 but
3.g5 fxg5
4.fxg5
4…. hxg5 let the h-pawn promote, so better
4…. Ke5
5.gxh6 Kf6
6.Kc2! Zugzwang and the white pawn on h6 cannot be prevented from promotion
I propose 1.f6! gf6 2.f4 Kd4 3.g5 with a breaktrough for white.
First try 1. g5?! fails. 1. -, f6! and there is no breakthrough.
As 1. -, f6 is a threat white can only win by playing f6 himself.
1. f6!! (now fxg7 is a threat and black cannot play g6/g5 as hxg6 (e.p.) wins) gxf6 2. f4 with the inevitable threat 3. g5 and the h pawn wins e.g. 2. -, f5 3. g5, hxg5 4. h6 +- (but not 4. fxg5??, f4! and black gets a queen, too) 5. g4, h7 6. g3, h8Q 7. g2, Qh2 +-
Did I oversee anything? The threat of black’s f6 gives a good hint to the solution, the rest is pretty easy.
Nice one, thanks for posting it.
Best wishes
Jochen
In the strange text below your question says the answer 0-1 in the end part. Why didn’t you hide it? So, black is winning!
Black will of course win. His strategy is to stalemate the White King and then force White to zugzwang. How this happens, depends on many individuals ways fo playing this position, thus it is impossible to guess the exact moves that lead to the deserved win.
Anon 7:42 doesn’t know Forsyth-Edwards notation.
Here’s some
links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forsyth–Edwards_Notation
http://www.chessgames.com/fenhelp.html
The first is the one which explains things better, including your misunderstanding…
Anonymous: the “0 1” has nothing to do with the result of the game. It is part of the position description in FEN:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forsyth-Edwards_Notation
and means: 0 moves since last pawn move or capture; move number 1.
It seems to me that 1.f6 is winning for white.
1.f6 gxf6
2.f4 K moves
3.g5 and there appears to be no way to prevent the h-pawn queening
JC
To anonymous: The w — 0 1 indicates white to move, no castling, no e.p., no count for the 50 move rule, start with move #1.
White wins with a pawn move.
p f4 should win for the whites, I think.
f6 wins of course (as a few explained in the comments), but 40 seconds to see that.. I’m too slow :/