White to move. How should White proceed? Try to calculate it out without endgame tablebases 🙂
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
King and Pawn endgame
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White to move. How should White proceed? Try to calculate it out without endgame tablebases 🙂
This is tricky. White has to push his king the long way around to the right in order to get in front of the pawns, while using all three together to force the Black king out of the way.
1 Kd4
takes the opposition and prevents the Black king from making any forward progress.
1 … Kc6
the only option that’s not a hopeless retreat
2 Ke5!
White gives up the opposition, but because of the pawns controlling b5 and c5, his King’s control of the d-file leaves the Black king nowhere to go but backwards.
2 … Kd7
the least bad of a bunch of bad options. (Pushing the pawn just allows White to go due west to c5 with no more royal interference from Black.)
3 Kd5
White takes the opposition back and leaves the Black king no way to advance.
3 … Kc7
another least-worst move.
4 Ke6!
The White king seems to be abandoning his pawns to their fate and taking off in the opposite direction. But they can take care of themselves long enough for him to swing back around and get in front of them.
4 … Kc6
the race is on…
5 b5+
…but now the Black king has to go down and around to get at the base pawn.
5 … Kc5
6 Kd7
It’s pretty clearly a won game for White at this point.
6 … Kb4
7 Kc6 Kxa4
8 Kxb6 Kb4
This continuation gives your textbook KPK column endgame. White wins because it’s his move.
Kc4- Kc6, b5+, Kd6, Kd4,Ke6;
a5 and should win winning with the opposition trick.
goodnight.
it was c4 c6; d4 d6; b5, e6 and a5 sorry.
Thanks Macros you’ve given (I think) the critical variation with good anotations
What more to say? My thinking process, as in last K and P example, doesn’t involve moves!?
1) The critical squares are here c6-d6-e6 (e7-e8)= If my king goes there I win the pawn. By using the opposition-outflanking it’s not so hard.
Note: Sometimes it’s good to have a “spare move” with a pawn (to gain opposition…) but here it’s not necessary.
Good endgame – I’m really learning a lot from them.
thanks susan
thanks guys
Jean-Luc: Thinking in terms of spaces instead of moves? Very Silmanesque. I still have to force myself not to start calculating immediately…
Thanks to mention Jeremy Silman. He wrote brilliant and inspiring books on middlegame and endgame strategy…and more…
For endgames I would highly recommend the last three DVD of Susan Polgar: Learn the endgame the easy way 8-9-10
… it’s much more fun to learn endgame by watching a DVD in a comfortable couch… than reading an endgame book with a lot of variations
…chess and fun should stay together, even when learning endgames (personnaly I only took endgames seriously since there are this kind of DVD lessons)
And if, like me, you like to watch endgame lessons (in a couch) I recommend the 3 Karsten Müller’s Fritz Trainer DVD’s about endgame: Impressive
Have a nice day