White to move. What is the best continuation for White?
8/8/R4p2/5k2/2n4P/2p2K2/P7/8 w – – 0 51
Endgame improvement
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White to move. What is the best continuation for White?
8/8/R4p2/5k2/2n4P/2p2K2/P7/8 w – – 0 51
I love this position. It’s so intriguing. There is a veil of mystery about it.
1.a4?
The immediate threat is c2 by black, and the white king is cut off from covering the queening square after this move (the knight controls d2 and the pawn would control d1), so it is left up the the rook to cover the threat, but how? You could try to find a method to draw the knight away from the c4 square by Ra4:
1. Ra4 Nb2
2. Ra5 Kg6
3. Rc5 Na4
4. Rc4 and the twin threats of Ra4 and Rc3 can’t both be parried.
However, there are four other squares for the knight on move 1:
1. Ra4 Nd2
2. Ke2 Nb3 (Nb1 or Ne4 no better)
3. Kd1 and I don’t see a way for black to prevent Kc2.
or:
1. Ra4 Ne5
2. Ke2 and how does black protect the pawn? I don’t see it in this line
or:
1. Ra4 Nb6
2. Ra5 Kg6
3. Rc5 and the pawn falls
and Nd6 looks no better than Nb6.
In all the variations, it looks like, to me that Ra4 is the best move for white- it seems to win every line I can see.
The way I was playing in the club yesterday, I’d move 1. Rc6 — and get forked!
The pawn has to be stopped from converting – so the N has to be shifted – Rc6 fails because of Ne5+ – so Ra4 is the only move.
Question is – does this achieve anything? Yes, because d2 and a5 are freed up.
1…Ne5+ 2.Ke2
1…Nb2 2.Ra5+ Ke6
3.Rc5 Na4
White has just enough room to keep the R on the c-file.
4.Rc7 … say Kd6
5.Rc8 Nc5
6.Ke3 .. and the h-pawn wins.
What’s the point?
After Ra4, which is not all that hard to
find, white easily wins in all lines.