White to move. Is this a win, draw, or loss for White? How should White proceed?
Hint: It is NOT as simple as it looks.
8/8/rP6/2K5/8/8/8/4k3 w – – 0 1
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Must know endgame
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What is so complicated in this? 1. b7 Ra5+ 2. Kc4 Ra4+ 3. Kb3 Ra1 4. Kb2 wins by queening the pawn. There is no stalemate trick as in the famous Saavedra study.
To me 1. b7 looks winning. What can black do? It seems he can already move the rook to the third rank and hope white cannot crack the defence with the queen. 😉
1.b7 Ra5+ 2.Kc4 Ra4+ 3.Kc3 Ra3+ 4.Kc2 Ra2+ 5.Kb1 and black can’t stop the pawn from queening. Isn’t it?
I DONT KNOW!!!
Maybe
1. b7 Ra5
2.Kc4 Ra4
3.Kc3 Ra3
4.Kb2 and b8Q+- ?
DT, Australia
I don’t see how Black can stop
1. b7
was this too easy or am I missing something obvious…
It can be a tough draw. I suppose Ra2 can help in that
this looks like a win for white with
1. b7 and now black is forced to play Ra5+
i think the key here is for white to not put his king on the 7th or else black can play Ra7 for a draw. Nor can he get his king on the b file carelessly or else Ra1 and then Rb1 to draw. So the variation looks like this
1.b7 Ra5+
2.Kc4 Ra4+
3.Kc3 Ra3+
and now white can play 4.Kb2 so the black rook cant get behind the king and the pawn can not be stopped
Very interesting…the idea for white is obviously to promote the pawn. This can only be achieved by getting the King to b2.
1. b7 Ra5+ 2. Kc4 (If 2. Kc6 2..Rc6+ 3. Kc7 Rc7 and the pawn is lost getting black the draw, if 2. Kb6 2..Ra1 and white cannot promote due to the threat Rb1+ and any other king move now will earn black the draw)
2..Rc4+ 3. Ka3 Ra3+ 4. Kb2 (eliminates the Rb1+ threat)
4..R moves some where
5. b8Q +-
Now white has to win the Q vs R ending.
1.b7!
After that black rook can’t stop the pawn.
1…Ra5+
2.Kc6! Ra6+
3. Kc7!
Black can fight for a draw with Rook against Queen.
It depends on the technique whether white wins or not.
1. b7 Ra5+
2. Kc4 Ra4+
3. Kc3 Ra3+
4. Kb2 wins
of course, if 2. Kb6 or 2. Kb4, then …Ra1 -> Rb1+ draws
The hint says it is not as simple as it looks, but all I can see is 1. b7 Ra5+ 2. Kc4 Ra4+ 3. Kc3 Ra3+ 4. Kb2 followed by coronation. White must of course avoid a skewer.
Also, 1. …Rh6 with the thought to keep checking the king does not work, there is a8, the first rank behind the king, and g1 is guarded by the queen.
Hi Susan Polgar,
Well as of this game is concerned making a draw is child’s play,but if I have to represent White I will win.
Now I will give example moves one for White’s another for the draw.
Scenario 1 :
============
1. b7 Ra5+
2. Kc6 Ra6+
3. Kc7 Rh6
4. b8(Q) Rh7+
5. Kb6 Rh6+
6. Ka7 Rh7+
7. Ka8 Rh3
8. Qe5+ Kd1
9. Qd5+ Kc1
10.Qg2 Rh8+
11.Ka7 Rh7+
12.Ka6 Rh6+
13.Ka5 Rh5+
14.Ka4 Rh4+
15.Kb3 Rh8
16.Kc2+ Mate
White wins the game : 1 – 0
Scenario 2 :
===========
1. b7 Ra5+
2. Kb6 Ra1
3. Kc7 Rb1
4. b8(Q) R*Qb8
Draw : 1/2 – 1/2
By
Venky.[ Chennai – India ]
Why, this leads to queen against rook endgame which is a win for White!
1. b7 Ra5+ 2.Kc4 (the king need not go to the b-file with 2.Kb4 because of 2… Ra1 followed by 3…Rb1) Ra4+ 3.Kc3 (3.Kb3 would work now; if 3… Ra1 4.Kb2) Ra3+ 4.Kb2 Rd3 5.a8=Q and wins.
–TCC
White wins as follows
1. b7 1..Ra5+ 2. Kc4 2..Ra4+ 3.Kc3 3..Ra3+ 4. Kb2 ! and now black rook cannot cheque white king from b1 square and white will queen in next move controlling the b3 to b7 square so rook cannot go down either. Also , there is no way of preventing queening either.
what’s wrong with the simple b7? white queens, and the white king can escape from checks from the first rank to the e-rank, methinks
b7!
Ra5+
Kc4
Ra4+
Kb3!
Ra1
Kb2
Rook cannot stop the b7 pawn.
from Spain…
1)b7,Ra5+
2)Kc4,Ra4+
3)Kc3,Ra3+
4)Kc2,Ra2+
5)Kb1+-
Tourds regards
After 1. b7 as other’s writes, what if black plays 1. … Ra1 for example, in that way it will draw (rook take pawn/queen, white must take rook => draw).
Interesting! First time I saw this problem was 40 years ago, in fact the beauty behind this problem was the one which generate so much interest in me for chess.
I thought it was the most beautiful problem I had seen.
Hint: One need not promote a pawn to queen.
Anonymous said…
I DONT KNOW!!!
An anonymous person doesn’t know the answer to the puzzle. That’s really informative. If comment moderation is on, why do they even post comments that have zero meaningful content?
I’m under the impression that there’s something that may be complicated. Of course, Black cannot stop the queening, but Q+K versus R+K is only easy when the rook is far away from the King. What if, instead of all these useless checks, Black plays 1… Ra2 2.b8=Q Rd2. I wouldn’t necessarily know how to win the rook.
I suppose in a practical situation, most club players would have to settel with a draw in this case. Can anyone show how to win this on detail AFTER the promotion?
Bruno
PS. Still waiting for the second part of the analysis of the WC match, Susan. Can you tell us when should we expect it?
Anydot: 1.b7 Ra1 2. b8/Q and wins. Black’s rook would need an extra move to threaten the pawn/queen this way before it’s too late.
This is not an end game.But never ending game.CLEAR CUT DRAW.White gets the queen.But it can not capitalise as black rook is a free lancer and defends effectively.
POSSIIBLE MOVES :
(1)b7,Ra5+(2)kc4,Ra1(3)b8=Q,Rd1(4)Qf4,Rd2(5)Qe4+,Kd1(6)Qh7,Kc1(7)Qg7,Rc2+(8)Kd5,Kb1(9)Qh8,Kc1 =
Clear cut draw.White gets queen but black’s freelance rook defends accurately.
Dear Krishnamurthy,
You are not correct. The Q vs R endgame arising from this position is clearly won for White. Want to continue from your 3rd move?
That seems to be easy enough. Just two wrong trys should be known. Of course attacking the Ra5 (after Ra5+) is wrong for Ra1 with check in the b file. The other wrong way would be Kc6, Ra6+ Kc7 (to “protect” the pawn), the will follow Rc7 with a draw. In a blitz game it may happen to end like that
to correct my first statement, which was “The other wrong way would be Kc6, Ra6+ Kc7 (to “protect” the pawn), the will follow Rc7 with a draw.” Correct is: Then will follow Ra7 with a draw. Sorry!