White to move. Is this a win or draw for White? How should White proceed?
8/R7/8/8/2K3p1/8/5k2/8 w – – 0 1
No computer or endgame tablebase lines please 🙂
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Special endgame improvement exercise
Seems too esay
Ba3 g5
Kd5 g6
Ke4 g7
Kf7 g6 (disappointed the pawn try to get back home)
(MVP: Your board is upside down. I’ve been there & done that.)
Must be a win for White, otherwise there’s little to recommend it as an endgame improvement study. I would guess the win involves using checks to the king and capture threats to the pawn to win tempos for the king to reach the pawn before it promotes. Let’s see.
1. Rf7+ Ke3
2. Rg7 Kf3
3. Kd3 g3
4. Rf7+ Kg2
5. Ke3 Kg1
6. Rg7 g2
7. Kf3
Or
4. … Kg4
5. Ke3 g2
6. Kf2 Kh3
7. Rg7
I don’t foresee any stalemate snags to worry about.
Rf7+ leads to a win for White! This is a theoretical win for White. Pure technique!
MVP,
Please get a grip of yourself.
1)Rf7+! Ke2 2)Rg7 Kf3 3)Kd3 wins for white
The most obvious line to me seems drawish:
1. Kd4 g3
2. Ke4 g2
3. Ra2 Kf1
4. Kf3 g1(N) [g1(Q)?? 5. Ra1#]
5. Ke3 and I think this is a draw. Will look at other lines.
The other first move that jumps out at me:
1. Rf7 Kg2
2. Kd3 g3
3. Ke3 Kg1
4. Kf3 g2
5. Rg7 Kh1 (Kf1 6. Rg2 wins)
6. Kf2 and this will win for white, but 6. Rg2 is a draw. I need to do a deeper analysis of this line since it is ignoring some options for black, but I just don’t have the time at the moment, so maybe others can work on this.
More analysis of Rf7:
1. Rf7 Ke3
2. Rg7 Kf3
3. Kd3 g3
4. Rf7 Kg2
5. Ke2 Kh1
6. Rh7 Kg1
7. Kf3 g2
8. Rg7 Kh1
9. Kf2 wins, I think.
The key seems to be to force the black king in front of the g-pawn in order to gain enough tempii to bring the white king into the battle. It seems to do black no good to try to head the white king off as white can always continue to check or attack the pawn from behind in order to gain the tempo.
However, one must be careful not to capture the g-pawn in haste if the white king is at f3, the pawn is at g2 and the black king is at h1 as this is stalemate.
1.Rf7+ Ke2 2.Rg7 Kf3 3.Kd3 g3 4.Rf7+ Kg2 5.Ke2 +-
1.Kd4,g3.
2.Ke4,g2
3.Ra2+,Kf1
4.Kf3,g1=Knight+
5.Ke3,Nh3
6.Rh2,Ng5
7.Rh6!!
Then the Knight is capturated or mate.
no computer solution