White to move and draw! Can you figure it out?
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Cute endgame
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White to move and draw! Can you figure it out?
How about 1. Kd6 Ne6 (must stop the pawn) 2. Kxe6 e1=Q, but it is a draw because the bishop pawn on the seventh rank and the black king isn’t close enough.
Don’t forget Qb4+ for black winning the Queen or stopping White from Queening.
After 2. Kxe6 q1=Q+, 3. Kf6 is a draw.
It does not work. Black does not move the Knight. Black will Queen the pawn immediately and if White queens, Black will play Qb4+ winning the Queen.
1. Kd6 Qe1=Q+ 2. f8Q Qb4+ and 3. Ke5, and if black takes the queen it is stalemate.
And not taking the queen, resulting in a Q+N vs. Q endgame is also a draw.
Endgame Q/N vs queen is not easy to drawn.
…3.Ke5 Qd4+ 4.Kf5 Qe4+ 5.Kf6 looks critical for white. Okay tablebases says draw…:)
8/2n2P2/8/2K5/8/3k4/4p3/8 w – – 0 1
obvous error here.
1. Kd6 Qe1=Q+ 2. f8Q Qb4+ and 3. Ke5, and if black takes the queen it is stalemate.
if Qe1=Q+ then 2. f8Q is impossible since king in check.
The trick is that if white puts his king on h8 then Qxf7 is stalemate. So that is what white must do to defend the pawn.
1.Kd6 Ne6 [1…e1Q 2.f8Q Qb4+ 3.Ke5 Qxf8 (stalemate) = , Black cannot make any progress anyway.] 2.Kxe6 e1Q+ 3.Kd7 (Theoretical draw) Qb4 4.Ke8 Qb8+ 5.Ke7 Qe5+ 6.Kf8 Ke4 7.Kg8 Qe6 8.Kh8! (That is the defence, if Queen takes f7 it is stalemate.) ½–½
I made a typo earlier when I said “1… Qe1=Q+”. It should be “e1=Q”.
“Secrets of Pawnless Endings” by John Nunn says that the overwhelming majority of Q+N vs. Q endgames are drawn. I checked the one that could result in this position, and it is a draw.
I like the line 1. Kd6! e1=Q 2. f8=Q Qb4+ 3. Ke5!, drawing since 3. … Qxf8 is stalemate.
I played white against my computer and came up with the following sequence of moves. Certainly may not be the fastest, but ended as a K+N v K, which is insufficient material to mate.
1.Kc6 e1=Q
2.f8=Q Qc1+
3.Kd7 Nb5
4.Qf3+ Kc2
5.Qc6+ Nc3
6.Qg2+ Kd3
7.Qf3+ Kc4
8.Qc6+ Kb4
9.Qb6+ Ka4
10.Qa6+ Kb3
11.Qb6+ Kc2
12.Qf2+ Kd3
13.Qf3+ Qe3
14.Qxe3+ Kxe3 1/2-1/2
I also played a different sequence to a 3 move repetition ending, but didn’t save that one, sorry.
!. Kc6 loses to 1… Ne6!