Monday, May 04, 2015

Bank Holiday Monday


White to play


I am unwell.  Not in the Jeffrey Bernard 'pissed in a ditch' kind of a way and not in any kind of serious way, but unwell nonetheless. Unwell enough to not really feel like writing the post that I was going to write for today.

So I’m not going to. Here’s a simple position instead.

White to play. With best play should it be a win or can black hold the draw?


King and pawn Index
at

8 comments:

  1. an ordinary chessplayerMon May 04, 08:02:00 pm 2015

    What, anonymous hasn't looked this up in a tablebase yet?

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  2. AnonymousTue May 05, 01:17:00 pm 2015

    The extra resources in forcing the opposing King back gained from having the spare pawn should make this a win. A tablebase will show you the exact technical method.

    Put the Black King on e6 instead of e7 and the result changes.

    The similar h pawn ending is a draw as one would expect.

    RdC

    ReplyDelete
  3. Matt FletcherTue May 05, 06:13:00 pm 2015

    Could have been a blue or red pill question - obviously you don't move the pawns, but does the King go left or right?

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  4. Jonathan RogersTue May 05, 07:24:00 pm 2015

    actually I bet white could even win by playing 1 f4 too. I should think that everything wins.

    JB - you can add two more king and pawn endings to your collection from the recent Barbican 2 v Wood Green match (Houska v Berry and Speelman v Coleman). You could even have three pills for the former; there were three plausible moves at one stage, one of which wins, one which draws and one which lost.

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  5. Matt FletcherTue May 05, 09:23:00 pm 2015

    @Jonathan Rogers - Surprisingly Nalimov will tell you there's only one move that wins.

    1.f4 f5 only gets you a draw.

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  6. an ordinary chessplayerThu May 07, 12:23:00 pm 2015

    @Matt Fletcher - thanks for the 1.f4 f5 = hint.

    At first I thought it was an easy win (e.g. both 1.Kg2 and 1.Ke2), then I thought it was a draw, but with the hint I think I have it worked out. 1.Kg2? f5 2.Kg3 Kf7 3.Kf4 (3.Kh4 Kg6 4.f4 Kh6 =) Kf6 4.Ke3 Ke5 5. f4+ Kd5 6.Kd3 Kc5 7.Kc3 Kd5=. 1.Ke2 Ke6 2.Ke3 Ke5 3.f4+ Kd5 4.Kf3 f5 5.Kg2! (5.Kg3? Ke4 =) Kd4 (5...Ke4 6.Kg3) 6.Kh3 Kd3 7.Kh4 +-. Unfortunately my flag fell on Wednesday.

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  7. Matt FletcherThu May 07, 11:24:00 pm 2015

    @an ordinary chessplayer - just followed your Ke2 line through. What happens after 5.Kg2! Ke6! ?

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  8. an ordinary chessplayerFri May 08, 03:25:00 pm 2015

    You have a point. So, back to my first variation, 1.Kg2 (no punctuation this time) f5 2.Kg3 Kf7 3.Kh4 Kg6 4.f4 Kh6 5.Kg3 Kg6 6.Kf3 Kf6 7.Ke3 Ke6 8.Kd4 Kd6 9.f3 +-.

    1.Kg2 Kf6 2.f4 (2.Kg3 Kg5 is a mirror of 2.Ke3 Ke5) Kf5 (2...Kg6 3.Kg4 f5+ 4.Kf3) 3.Kf3 f6 4.Ke3 Ke6 5.Ke4 f5+ 6.Kd4 is the same.

    If I failed again, I will just resort to the tablebase.

    @JB - Do you have a source for the position?

    ReplyDelete