White to move. Is this a win or draw for White? How should White proceed?
8/1Pk5/2P5/P7/5p2/6p1/6Pp/7K w – – 0 2
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
K and P endgame
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easy to calculate, because there´s a minimum number of legal moves 🙂
1. b8Q+ Kxb8
2. a6 zugwang. any move leads to white´s pawn promotion and/or loss of black´s pawns.
greets, jan
1. b8 kxb8
2. a6 and white has no defense as one of the two pawns will queen
White wins with this combination
1.b8Q+, Kxb8
2.a6, Kc7
3.a7, Kxc6
4.a8Q+, …
1. b8Q+! Kxb8
2. a6! and now whichever way the black King goes, White advances the other pawn, and it queens.
1. a6? Kb8 and the Black king snaps up all three pawns, with a stalemate.
b8
1. B8, Kxb8
2. A6, Kc7
3. A7, Kxc6
4. A8 for Q
Another kind of endgame theme I have played more than a few times from both sides in online blitz games.
But for his queen side pawns, white is stalemated. There are only two legal moves- a6 and b8. Let’s just take the moves in order:
1.a6 Kb8
2.a7 Ka7
And, now, no matter which queen-side pawn white moves, he loses them both eventually, though black, to win, must deal with the stalemate problem:
3.c7 Kb7(f3 4.b8(Q) Ka6 5.c8(Q))
4.c8(Q)Kc8 and white is stalemated.
At move 3, above, white could have played
3. b8(Q) Kb8
4. c7 Kb7
5. c8(Q) Kc8 with stalemate again.
At move 1, black could try f3 immediately, to try to address the stalemate issue:
1. a6 f3
2. gf3 Kb8
3. f4 and white just pushes the f-pawn and black can do nothing about it. So, white forces a draw with 1.a6.
Now, can white do better with the other legal first move? Of course he can- there is a very important feature of single-file separated passed pawns that every player should be aware of:
1. b8(Q) Kb8
2. a6 Ka7
3. c7
And, now, black can’t get back to either b8 or b7 to cover c8- the two pawns control those squares by virtue of their single file separation and on adjoining ranks. Indeed, this is a somewhat common endgame theme with such pawns and it will keep a king from advancing on them since it can be used to threaten one of the pawns getting away from the king at any position on the board. At move 2, of course, the same thing happens if black plays
2. ……Kc7
3. a7
And the a-pawn queens. The alternatives at move 2 are Ka8, Kc8, and f3. Let’s take these in order, starting right at the beginning:
1. b8(Q) Kb8
2. a6 Ka8
3. c7 and, once again, the king is cut off from the queening square. The same will happen with 2……Kc8, so we don’t need to analyze that. And to tie up the last loose thread
1. b8(Q) Kb8
2. a6 f3
3. gf3 g2 (king moves lose above)
4. Kg2 and white, of course, wins.
It is probably not too often the case that a chess riddle asks for the right solution in a position which allows only two moves at all 🙂
I suggest
1. b8Q+ 1. Kxb8
2. a6, now Black faces a zugzwang position. Every king move looses by a7 or c7, and after
2. f4
3. gxf4 White creates a new free pawn and wins easily.
amusing. Black is in zuzwang after b8=Q+ Kxb8
a6
It’s a win for white after 1. b8=Q Kxb8 2. a6.
2…f4 obviously loses
2…Ka7 3.c7 wins
2…Kc7 3.a7 wins
b8Q KxQ
a6 and white wins.
White loses here. It is zugzwang for White. Whatever white moves here, he loses all the pawns on the queenside. After that, Black’s king will proceed to White’s kingside to promote his own Queen. Two lines will show this:
1. a6 Kb8 stops pawn from queening
1. b8+(Q) Kb8 and wins
1 b8-Q+ Kb8
2 a6 1-0
1. b7-b8=Q KxQ
2.a6 Ka7(or kc7)
if Ka7
3. c7 and win queen
if Kc7
3. a7 and win a queen
a win for white.
1) b8=Q+, Kxb8
2) a6
Now if the Black king moves to the a-file (Ka8 or Ka7), move the c file pawn (c7) and vice versa (a7 for Kc7/Kc8) and Black can’t stop both the a and c pawns.
The only other move Black has is f3, which is met with gxf3 and subsequent g2 loses both black pawns.
Nice zugzwang
this seemed to be too easy…makes me feel i’m overlooking something 🙂
White wins with
1.b8=Q Kxb8
2.a6 and black is in zugzwang
…Ka7(Ka8)
3.c7 and white queens
2…Kc7(Kc8)
3.a7
1. b8=Q+! Kxb8
2. a6! 1-0
Isn’t this a little too simple?
White wins with:
1. b8(Q)+ Kxb8
2. a6
Black has no good move.
On 2. … Kc8 or 2. … Kc7, 3. a7 promotes. The same results if the king tries the a file.
It is a win.
If you try to advance your A pawn, black plays Kb8 and, after the c or a pawn moves, the black king takes it and wins (after an eventual f3 to avoid stalemate).
The only other possible move is to promote with b8. If white makes it a queen, black has to take it. After that, the key move would be a6.
Note that black has no useful waiting moves with his pawns. After he moves them, the black king has to choose a side. If it goes to the A file, c7 wins, and if he chooses the C file, a7 wins.
Thus, white wins.
1. b8 =Q+ Kxb8
2. a6 and ZUGZWANG – one of the pawns will become a queen
1. b8=Q+, Kxb8
2. a6,
and Black is in Zugzwang. King moves allow White to queen on a8 or c8 while pawn moves free the remaining white pawn while the king keeps Black’s pawns under wraps.
Brilliant share post i like this blog.
Keep it up.
I like your blog.
1. b8=Q+ Kxb8
2. a6 and black is in Zug.
1.b8=Q+ wins, because after 2.a6, Black can’t move the King without allowing one of the Q-side pawns through, and therefore is forced to push the f, g, and h pawns in succession. Phil
b8=Q+, KxP, a7 and if Ka8/a7 , c7 and if Kc8/c7, a7 and white is lost because one of the two white pawns reaches the 8th line.
b8 (Q) KxQ
a6 zugzwang
1.b8=Q and White wins.
amar
Easy but instructive position: 1. a6 does’nt work because Black’s king moves to b8, White is forced to move and lose his pawns until stalemate.
1. b8Q+ should lead to a win for White: After 1. … Kxb8 2. a6 Black has two options:
a) 2. … f3 3. gxf3 g2 4. Kxg2 (Black loses his pawns and the game)
b) After 2. … Ka7 3. c7 (or 2. … Kc7 3. a7) Black can’t prevent White from getting a Queen (b7 and b8: no go area).
1.g8=Q Kg8
2.h6 c4 (if 2…Kf7 3.h7, and h
pawn queens; if 2…Kh7
3.f7, and f pawn queens)
3.bc4 b5
4.ab5 Kh7(if 4…Kf7 5.h7, amd h
pawn queens)
5.f7 and f pawn queens
So funny ^^
1.a6 Kb8! is a draw
but 1.b8/Q+ ! Kxb8 2.a6 is a win ^^
Tommy K. says:
This is a draw if white
plays a6 as the King
will occupy b8 covering
both a7 and c7 and white
will not be able to force
promotion.
White wins with
1.b8=Q+ Kxb8
2.a6
and now black is in
zugzwang. If the King
moves to the a-file the
c pawn advances to the
7th rank and promotes on
the next move. If the
King moves to the c-file
the a pawn advances to the
7th rank and promotes on
the next move. Black has one
other option. 2…f3 which
allows 3.gxf3. The white
King covers the g & h files
and the f pawn has a clear
path to f8.