White to move. Is this a win, draw, or loss for White?
3rk3/2p4R/p2pP3/1p2P3/1P6/6K1/8/8 w – – 0 2
R and P endgame
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White to move. Is this a win, draw, or loss for White?
3rk3/2p4R/p2pP3/1p2P3/1P6/6K1/8/8 w – – 0 2
1. e7 Rd7 (1..Rc8, 2. Rh8 check winning) 2. e6 + – (if 2… Rxe7, 3. Rh8 mate
MF Gabriel Curi (Uruguay)
1. e7 Rd7
(otherwise, 2. Rh8+ wins)
2. e6 Rxe7
(otherwise, 3. Rh8+ wins)
3. Rh8 and checkmate!
1.e7 Rd7 [1…Rc8 2.Rh8+]
2.e6 Rxe7
3.Rh8 #
Black is winning becuase he is up a pawn, and White’s pawns are doubled, for a decisive advantage of -1.50.
This is spectacular! I didn’t see that mechanism befor.
1. e7 and now
1. … Rd7
2. e6 Rxe7
3. Rh8 mate
or
1. … Rc/b/a8
2. e6 whatever
3. Rh8+ and White wins the rook
Fantastic!
“Anonymous said…
Black is winning becuase he is up a pawn, and White’s pawns are doubled, for a decisive advantage of -1.50.”
That’s pretty bad reasoning…It’s an endgame, you can read it out, you shouldn’t use such rough positional counting to determine who’s winning.
Personally, I read a win for white in all my variations, but I’m not very strong, probably missing something huge.
White win with Kf4
It is tempting to try to win by exchanging the rooks with 1.Rh8, but I think this draws at best:
1. Rh8 Ke7
2. Rd8 Kd8
3. ed6 cd6
4. Kf4 Ke7
5. Kf5 d5(hardest=,Kf8,d8,e8= too)
6. Ke5 d4
7. Kc5 a5!
8. ba5 Kd7 and white can’t keep the black king out of the corner. At move 3 above, white loses with
3. Kf4? d5!
4. e7 Ke7 and, eventually, white will have to give up the the remaining e-pawn to gobble up the passed d-pawn, and black will win with the two pawn advantage. One last note on this line, at move 4 in this subvariation, Ke3 or Kf5 simply loses to Ke7 as black always has c6 to protect the d-pawn, or run the d-pawn if white ever plays Kg6 or Kg5 (black then gobbles up e6 and e5).
White, then needs another plan to actually win (if he can). The other move I see immediately is to take at c7:
1. Rc7
And, now, black has limited options like Ra8, d5, or de5. Of the three, de5 looks the strongest and most natural, but let’s look at d5 just to be thorough:
1. …..d5
2. Kf4 d4 (everything loses)
3. Kf5
Can you see where this is going? Continuing:
3. …..d3 (Rb8 4.Kf6 Kd8 5.Rh7+-)
4. Kf6 Rd4(d2 5.Rh7, 6.Rh8#)
5. e7! Rf4 (Rh4 6.Rc8 Kd7 7.e8(Q))
6. Ke6 and mate can’t be prevented. Now, back to black’s first move reply-de5:
1. Rc7 de5
Here, white has some options like Kf3, Kg4, Rc6, or Ra7. It isn’t easy to see which is best. The first, third and fourth options give black counterplay that should hold the draw and could even be winning if white screws up. For example:
2. Kf3 Rd4
3. Rc6 Rb4
4. Ra6 and it is white, being a pawn down, that is fighting to draw, not black. I still think this is a draw with proper play, but I see no need to waste an hour looking at this line, or lines like 2.Ra7, 2.Rc6 since they are similar by interpolation to the above. Best for white, in my opinion is 2.Kg4 which is somewhat similar to the line above where white got a mating net on the black king:
2. Kg4 Rd4
3. Kf5 Rb4
4. Ke5
Kf6 is pretty much the same after black plays Rf4+. Continuing:
4. …..Rc4
5. Ra7 Ra4 (Rc6? 6.Kf6! Kd8 7.Kf7)
6. Ra8 Ke7 and neither side is going to make progress since the black king must keep watch on the e-pawn, and the white king cannot advance to either f6 or d6 without being harrassed from behind by the black rook.
So far, I don’t have a clear answer that wins for white, only draws, but, one of the lines above gives me an idea that I will consider in my next comment.
Instead of trying for mate. Why not try to win the rook with e7. if the rook moves away then Rh8+ wins the rook. Well it probably takes more work but that is the general idea.
In my previous comment, I showed, I think that white gets a draw with either 1.Rh8 or 1.Rc7. However, one of the subvariations in the second of these lines showed white with a powerful attack if black played inaccurately, and it occurred to me that this attack might be decisive if white started just a move or two earlier. With this idea in mind, there were two possible beginnings, Kf4 and an immediate e7. I already can see which is correct, as it is the one that drives a wedge between the black king and his rook, but I want to follow up on the wrong one first:
1. Kf4 de5 (d5? 2.Kf5 with # soon)
2. Kf5 Rd1
3. Kf6 Rf1
4. Ke5 Re1 and white will make no progress. I don’t want to look any deeper here, but I can’t even discount the possibility that black might even have the upper hand here. This line is a draw at best for white. Now to the move that appears to be the solution:
1. e7! Rb8 (Rd7?? 2.e6 Re7 3.Rh8#)
Now, of course, white can win the rook with Rh8, but what’s the hurry?
2. ed6 cd6 (Kd7 3.e8(Q) Ke8 4.dc7)
3. Rh8 Ke7
4. Rb8
The difference between the above line where white plays 2.ed6 rather than 2.Rh8 is seen below:
2. Rh8 Ke7
3. ed6 Kd6
4. Rb8 Kc6 and black will have an extra pawn, and a better pawn structure for the ensuing endgame. White should win either way, but it is easier in the 2.ed6line, in my opinion.
e7 wins easily!!
1. e7! Rd7
(if 1. … Rc8, 2. Rh8+ Kd7, 3. Rxc8 Kxc8, 4. e8=Q 1-0)
2. e6!! c5
(if Rxe7?, Rh8! mate)
3. exd7+ Kxd7
4. bxc5 dxc5
5. e8=Q+ Kxe8
6. Rh6 a5
7. Rh5 1-0
e7
e6
cooked goose
White wins.
1 e7 Rd7 forced oterwise if rook moves along the rank Rch wins
2 e6 RXe7 forced
3 R mates on the 8 th rank
1. e7!
There’s no way black is winning. His rook and king are trapped, and White can take the c-pawn immediately, then the a- or d-pawn. He can bring the king up and mate black also. Take your pick.
I’m doing this without a board. I think it’s a draw. It’s all about zugzwang and triangulation. The line might be something like this:
1. Rh8+ Ke7
2. Rxd8 Kxd8
3. ed ed
4. Kf4 Ke7
5. Kf5 d5
6. Ke5 d4
7. Kxd4 Kxe6
8. Kc5 Ke5
9. Kb6 Kd5
10. Kxa6 Kc6 (or Kc4)
11. Ka5
… and now black in stuck in a trebuchet. He must move away from protection of the b pawn after either Kc6 or Kc4 and there follows, however, after
11. … Kc7
12. Kxb5 is only a draw because black takes opposition with Kb7.
Help me if I went wrong.
Brad H.
1. e7, Rd7
2. e6, c5
(if 2. e6, Rxe7 then 3. Rh8 mate)
3. exd7, Kxd7
Then run white King up to protect e7, to get a Q; and R to h1 to stop black pawn.
Then easy for white to checkmate with a R & Q.
Pretty!
1. d7! Rd7 (1… Rc8 2. Rh8+ Kd7 3. Rxc8 +-)
2. d6! Rxd7
3. Rh8#
kf4 wins
han
Not sure about that. What is the evaluation after 1. e7 Rc8 2. Rh8+ Kd7 3. e6+ ?
1:0
Easy (and obvious) win.
1. e7 Rd7
2. e6 Rxe7
3. Rh8 mate
And if Black doesn’t play the Rook to d7 . . .
1. e7 Rc8
2. Rh8+ Kd7
3. Rxc8
with a rook advantage since
3. … Kxc8
4. e8=Q+
1 e7 Rd7 2 e6 Rxe7 3 Rh8x
Olimat
White wins with:
1. e7 Rc8 (1. … Rd7 2. e6 d5 [2. … Rxd7 3. Rh8#] 3. Kf4 etc.)
2. Rh8+ Kxe7
3. Rxc8
Now either 3. … Kd7 4. Ra8 or 3. … dxe5 4. Rxc7 and White holds onto the extra material in a won endgame.