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The line played... Joe gives the line played as: 1...Ke4 2.Kxe2 Kd4 3.a4 Ke4 4.a5... This position is still drawn! All Black has to do is bring his King inside the 'Magic Square' with his opponent to play. Here this square is formed by a4-a8-d8-d4. Can the BK get himself inside the 'MS'? Yes, he can: 4...Kd5 The pawn will promote with check, but the BK will capture the queen: 5.a6 Kc6 6.a7 Kb7 7.a8=Qch Kxa8 Had the line of King and pawns stood on the f-file, then Black would have been well advised to abandon them at once and go after the a-pawn; the more so if they stood on the g-file. Had they stood on the h-file, Black would have had a lost game. |
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baddeeds 23-Jun-20, 16:11 |
Deleted by baddeeds on 23-Jun-20, 16:36.
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The speed of the King... Here is from one of my games the conclusion of a rook and pawn end game just how nippy the king can be... This was actually the final position, with White (myself) to play. Calculating (by counting moves) that White had no win, I offered the draw. Here's how it would have gone. But from the diagram position, the Black King looks an awfully long way from the decisive theatre! 56.fxg7 Kxg7 57.Kc6 Kf7 58.Kxb6 Ke7 59.Kxa5 Kd7! 60.Kb6 Kc8 61.Ka7 Kc7 62.a5 Kc8 63.a6 Kc7 ... White's King is locked in from of the rook-pawn as so blocks its promotion. Had the White King got out from in front a move or two earlier, the Black King would have scuttled quickly into a8, to block the a-pawn himself. 'Book' draw. Had the White King at move 56 stood already at c6, White would have won. |
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Queen and Pawn Endgame... OK, with this in mind, and having noticed this end game in progress in a friend's game, I thought this interesting finale might make a fine topic for this thread. Actually the whole game is interesting, and I am very tempted to annotate it. But here goes. My old school buddy, thejoxter, had the Black pieces. We begin with White to play, and about to promote one of his pawns. Black's pawn is also about to promote. That both White pawns might promote make this situation fairly tricky. 63.a8=Q ... Certainly this choice gives White more to think about. Actually, it gives White fairish chances to go wrong. Clearly ...Rxa8 is no good, as after 64.bxa8=Q, the Black pawn can not promote without loss (...h1=Q; Qxh1). Had the b-pawn promoted instead, then 63.b8=Q?? Rxb8 64.axb8=Q h1=Q and and neither side can force a win. 63...Rf7ch Since the rook can not safely take the queen, then it is 'en prise'. That White would want to move it is understandable, especially as he can move it with a check. But here it is a mistake. Instead the pawn ought to promote, with a draw: 63...h1=Q! 64.Qxf8 Qxb7ch - with another non-trivial K+Q vs K+Q situation. 64.Ke8 (?) Another move that looks so very plausible, but turns out to be wrong. The right move, 64.Ke6! looks counter-intuitive doesn't it? But that would have been pretty much the only move to win: 64...h1=Q 65.Qg8ch! Kh3 66.Qh8ch Kg2 67.Qxh1... wins the K+Q vs K+R ending. Otherwise, after 65...Kf3, 66.Qxf7ch ensures White two queens against one (or one against none) and a very probable win. Now the game is back to =. 64... h1=Q = 65.Qc8ch ... Nothing wrong with this, but he could equally well have taken the rook, or promoted the b-pawn. 65... Kg5? +/- It is hard to work out White's thinking here. Why not block the check with the rook? Possibly White was concerned about the pin after b8=Q, but I'd rather have the rook and pinned, than not have the rook at all. 66.Kxf7? ... Maybe it was upon this capture that White laid the foundation of his defence! Again, sparing the rook seems counter-intuitive, but 66.b8=Q was the only way to win. 66... Qh7ch = Now White will have the devil's own job getting his second queen. Black's queen has almost the whole board to roam around in giving check... Almost! 67.Ke6 Qg6ch 68.Kd5 Qd3ch 69.Kc6 Qa6ch 70.Kc7 Qa5ch? This turns out to be wrong, but it is very hard to see why. Maybe Black can survive, but, according the GK engine, by a narrow, winding path, White can gradually reduce Black's checking options until there are none left. I append this line, with asterisks to denote White's 'only move' situations. 71.Kd6* Qd2ch 72.Ke7* Qb4ch 73.Ke8 (also Kf7=) ...Qe4ch 74.Kd8* Qd4ch 75.Kd7* Qh8ch 76.Kc7 Qc3ch 77.Qc6 Qa5ch (say) 78.Kd6 Qd8ch 79.Kc5 Qe7ch 80.Kb5 Qe2ch 81.Kb6 ... and at this point Black has run out of checks, as any check now will be blocked by the White queen, forcing the exchange, and the last pawn promotes. 81...Qh2. And now White can force promotion by some such line as this: 82.Qd5ch Kg4 83.Qg8ch Kf5 84.b8=Q ... with a likely win. 71.Kb8? ... Reprieve. 71... Qe5ch Pretty much forces the WQ to block 72.Qc7 Qh8ch 73.Qc8 Qe5ch 74.Qc7 Qe8ch This move is fine - and in essentials, no different from ...Qh8ch. But, having played it once, I would have chosen ...Qh8ch, repeating the position, and hoping for a third repetition to follow. 75.Qc8 Qe5ch 76.Qc7 ... At this point the position has been repeated three times, but by White's opponent. Whether Black could claim a draw by threefold repetition, I'm not sure. 76...Qe8ch 77.Ka7! ... Still making Black work for his draw... 77... Qa4ch 78.Kb6 Qb4ch? What could possibly be the difference between ...Qb4ch (loses) and ...Qb3ch (draws)? We'll come to this, as White misses it at first. 79.Kc6? ... Instead ...Ka6! would have won, as Black would have had no useful checking move. Had the queen stood at b3 (...78...Qb3ch) then 79...Qd3ch would have been available. 79... Qc4ch? The same motif, in a different setting. The right move was 79...Qc3ch! 80.Kd7 ... ++/- 80... Qd5ch Black doesn't have this line available: 80...Qh3ch 81.Kd8 Qh8ch. 81.Kc8 Qf5ch 82.Kd8 Qd5ch (?) Rather tougher is 82...Qf8ch, which leads to something similar to the line I gave at move 70. It loses for Black - IF White can find the right procedure. 83.Qd7 Qg8ch 84.Kc7 Qc4ch 85.Qc6 Qf7ch 86.Kb6 Qf8 Black had finally run out of checks. 87.Qg2ch! Kh4 Any move to the f-file lost the queen; but... 88.Qh2ch! ... 1-0. White will get his second queen. |
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A small oops... Now, in a fit of absent-mindedness I appended an exclam after 87.Qg2ch - and truth to tell, it is quite a clever move. But I forgot to add that I would never have thought of such a move at all! Not if I had available... 87.Qc5ch! ... Instead of a 2Q vs 1Q endgame, a 1Q vs 0Q endgame is much preferable! |
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archduke_piccolo 20-Feb-22, 00:43 |
Deleted by archduke_piccolo on 20-Feb-22, 00:44.
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archduke_piccolo 20-Feb-22, 00:44 |
Deleted by archduke_piccolo on 20-Feb-22, 00:45.
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Here's one... ... from a recent news item on Gameknot's front page. White to play and win. This is NOT a 'mate in x moves', but find the way that White can obtain a winning game It is White to play. It seems that White has to rely on his h-pawn, as the f-pawn can not be saved. But if we supposed that the the f-pawns and the d-pawn were to vanish, Black would have a comfortable draw, as White would have the rook-pawn, wrong bishop, and Black's king could reach g8/h8 betimes. So, our plan must be to prevent Black's king reaching g8 or h8 before the h-pawn can promote. Give it a go... |
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Gm M. Carlsen vs GM Wei Yi We start with this position after Black's 52nd move, ...h6-h5. Diagram 1. Now the sapient reader will observe that White pawn, protected by the rook is about to promote, and the king is handily placed to usher the thing home. Black's pawn is far back, apparently irrelevant. White goal is obvious: promote the pawn. Black's defence lies in preventing promotion by harassing the WK and pawn whilst he can; failing that, as a last ditch to give up rook for pawn and hope his pawn has enough of a lead the enemy king and rook can't overhaul it betimes. Now, I'll play through the actual game to begin with, and then have a look at a possible alternative line of play. This is pretty long, and there are kinda 'boring bits' but if you will bear with me I think you might find the 'boring bits' have a certain didactic value. 53.Kd6 Rd3ch 54.Ke6 Re3ch 55.Kf7 Rf3ch Diagram 2. w It is probably well to note this position; we'll be coming to something very similar a deal later. 56.Kg8 Re3 Now White has a problem. Each time the king approaches the pawn to protect the queening square, he gets checked away by the Black rook. So Black's early plan is really very simple. For his part, whilst looking for a winning line, and bearing in mind this game was played under a pretty quick time control. White had to avoid threefold repetitions. 57.Kf8 Rf3ch 58.Rf7 Re3 59.Rg7 ... Why not 59.e8=Q now? We'll see the consequences of THAT later! 59...Rf3ch 60.Kg8 Re3 61.Kf7 Rf3ch 62.Kg6 Re3 63.Kf5 ... A cute trick: White hopes for 63...Rf3ch 64.Ke4, preventing the WR's return to the e-file. But now comes 63... Re1 Checking distance. Thwarts White's little probe. The WK has to return to the pawn if he has any hope of promoting. 64.Kf6 Rf1ch 65.Ke6 Re1ch 66.Kf7 Rf1ch 67.Kg8 Re1 68.Kf8 Rf1ch 69.Rf7 Re1 Diagram 3. We have been here before, apart from the Black rook position (see move 58) 70.e8=R ... Promoting to rook instead of queen won't dissuade Black from taking. Now come a well known defensive play by Black. It seems very likely White could see where this was headed and simply hoped for a time trouble mishap by Black. The type of technique here is worth learning. 70...Rxe8ch 71.Kxe8 Kg3 Black sets out to turn the pawn home, protected by the king. Diagram 4. 72.Rg7ch Kf3 Keeping sufficiently close to the pawn. The rook will need the assistance of his king to reel in the pawn 73.Rh7 Kg4 74.Ke7 h4 75.Ke6 h3 76.Ke5 Kg3 77.Ke4 h2 78.Ke3 Kg2 79.Ke2 h1=Q 80.Rxh1 Kxh1 Draw: dead position. Now, could White have won the position? It turns out he could have done - the irony being that the winning line was the one he DIDN'T try whilst the king was being checked on f7 and f8. Well go back to move 69, where White finally gave up his pawn. He could in fact have played the winning line at move 56! Diagram (again) after Black's 69th move: Diagram 5: 70.Rg7 Rf1ch 71.Ke8!! ... This is really the only path to the win. All other King moves White has been trying really just mark time. 71...Rd1 Black has alternatives, but this is an attempt to stop the king emerging onto the d-file (for what that might be worth). None of the alternatives offer better hope. 72.Rg8 ... Now the rook protects the queening square. White's king will now seek out a different shelter from the enemy rook checks. I wonder where that might be! The h-file maybe? 72...Rf1 73.Kd7 Rd1ch 74.Ke6 Re1ch 75.Kf6 Rf1ch 76.Kg6 Rg3ch 77.Kh7 Re1 78.e8=Q Rxe8 79.Rxe8 Kg3 Diagram 6: The relative positions of the White pieces are vastly different from those of Diagram 4! White can at once harass the Black pawn. Yet it might not be so obvious how White can reel in the h-pawn! 80.Kg6 h4 81.Kg5 h3 82.Re3ch Kg2 All other moves will lose the pawn. 83.Kg4 h2 84.Re2ch Kg1 85.Kg3 ... It seems White can not prevent promotion after all! 85...h1=Nch Promoting to queen was met by 86.Re1 checkmate! 86.Kf3 Kf1 87.Ra2 Kg1 Any other move loses the knight or leads to checkmate or both. 88.Rd2! ... Why this particular move will soon become clear. 88... Ng3 89.Kxg3 Kf1 90.Kf3 Kg1 Instead, 90.Ke1 Rd3 and mate next, hence White's 88th 91.Ra2 Kh1 92.Kg3 Kg1 93.Ra1# |
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Blitz Ending... In his hurry, Black played 1...fxg3?? - an illegal move which, under the laws of Blitz Chess, implies an instant forfeit. The question here is: with a legal move could Black have won? If so, how could he bring it about? If not, how does white hold the draw? I'll leave this open for a few days to see how anyone gets on. |
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This is another that I saw recently... White to play: what result? Show me. (Yes, I know the answer) |
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Time's up. This one: Black to play and win: 1....Qe2ch 2.Rf2 ... Instead, 2.Kg1 f3 after which Black mates or wins the rook) 2...f3! Looks counter-intuitive, doesn't it, but the 'twice attacked, once defended pawn cannot be captured, because neither attacker can legally do so! 3.Kg1 Qe1ch 4.Rf1 Qg3ch ...and mates. This could have been delayed - not averted - only by giving up the rook. And now, this: White to play: what result? A] Simply shoving forward the h-pawn leads to... 1.h4 axb4 2.h5 b4 3.h6 b3 4.h7 b2 5.h8=Q b1=Q and a likely draw. B] 1.Kc7 a5, and Black, queening and preventing White from doing so, will win. C] 1.bxa6 b5! 2.h4 b4 3.h5 b3 4.h6 b2 5.h7 b1=Q 6.h8=Q Qb8ch ... and Black wins. D] So let's try this: 1.b6ch Kxb6 Any other move leads to the same result. 2.h4 ... ... and clearly White queens first, preventing Black from doing so, and White wins. |
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Thank You archduke_piccolo You are always welcomed back! We are in the process of building up our membership to have more activity in our threads. Take care my friend! hope to have a game with you someday. Goodbye Coach Ion! |
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