Monday, February 04, 2008

Pawn ending


White to play.


(from Gerald Abrahams, Technique in Chess.)
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6 comments:

  1. Tom ChiversMon Feb 04, 10:40:00 am 2008

    My rather hungover guess is 1.Kf2 Kh2 2.Kf3 Kh3 and then just queen the c pawn - since now it queens with check.

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  2. ejhMon Feb 04, 10:50:00 am 2008

    You reckon?

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  3. Tom ChiversMon Feb 04, 11:02:00 am 2008

    Not any more...

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  4. AnonymousMon Feb 04, 12:57:00 pm 2008

    1.Kf2 Kh2 2.Kf3 Kh3 3.Kf4 Kh4
    4.c4 g5+ 5. Ke3! g4 6.c5 g3 7. c6 g2 8. Kf2

    or 5. - Kh3 and as Tom says White promotes with check and gets Q vs g2 pawn, which is a win.

    Is that it?

    Carsten

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  5. ejhMon Feb 04, 01:47:00 pm 2008

    That's pretty much it, yes. The trick is to march the grand old duke of York up the hill and then march him down again, but by a slightly different route...

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  6. AnonymousTue Feb 05, 07:49:00 am 2008

    Might need to add 1. Kf2 Kh2 2. Kf3 Kh3 3. Kf4 Kh4 4. c4 g5+ 5. Ke3 Kg4 6. Ke4! for completeness.

    I'm wondering if

    5. Ke4 doesn't win as well.

    ie. 5... g4 6.c5 g3 7. Kf3 Kh3 8. c6 g2 9. c7 g1(Q) 10. c8 (Q)+ and 11. Qh8+ (mate or winning the Q).

    1. Ke2 is also an alternative first move.

    Richard

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