White to move. Is this a win or draw? How should white proceed?
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A number of these R+P vs R endings have been posted here since last year, but this is the first one I can remember where the first and only move to win is not to cut off the enemy king. When I looked at this, that was my first thought, but I can see it doesn’t work to win:
1. Rd1? Rd7!
Providing a path for the black king to the king side. Since the rook is now hanging, white must either retreat to e1 to cut that file for a move, or exchange rooks:
2. Re1 Kd8
Black should draw, too, with 2. …Rd4, cutting off white’s king from the pawn and the fourth rank, the threat being Rf4 and Rxf5/6. White can prevent this with Rf1, but then black’s king crosses the e-file for a draw, and if white plays 3.Kg3 to prevent Rf4, black plays Kd7 taking the tempo needed- the pawn can’t be pushed without allowing Rd6 attacking the pawn and forcing the white rook to f1. Continuing:
3. Kg4 Re7 (again clearing the path for black’s king)
4. Re7
In this position, once the black king gets to e8, the rook ending is drawn fairly easy- I just want to demonstrate the corresponding K+P vs K ending is drawn, too:
4. ………..Ke7
5. Kg5 Kf7 and the rest is left as an exercise. Much the same is the result if white had exchanged rooks at d7 at move 2.
Given this, the first move literally has to be 1.Kg4 if white is to win.
1. Kg4 Kd8
If there is a draw, black must not allow white to delay this advance- white was just one tempo from winning in the previous line:
2. Kg5 Ke8
3. Kg6 Re2
It won’t do black any good to play Kf8 here since white responds with Rh8+. Black now plans harassment of the white king:
4. Rh8 Kd7 (if Ke7, white plays 5.f6 with check)
5. f6 Rg2
6. Kf7 Rg3
There are probably longer defenses, most likely Rf2, here, but the point of this move is to keep the white king trapped in front of the pawn, but this is easily dealt with…..
7. Kf8 Rf3 (or Ke6 8.f7 Rf3 9.Rh7)
8. f7 Ke6
9. Rh7
More precise than the also winning Rh6+- you end up in the same place, but a move behind. The rest is easy, though you do have to be a bit careful not to blunder….
9. ………..Ra3 (if Rg3 10.Rg7 wins)
10.Kg8 Rg3
11.Rg7 and the pawn can’t be stopped.
My browser was saying that my connection wasn’t private when I tried to access this site a few days ago when you and Alena were posting and that hackers might be trying to steal data, I should have said that before but I was being uncooperative because I was jealous. I think I’ve found a way to fix my personality quite a lot so that shouldn’t happen again.
I got the same message. It was probably due to an expired certification of Susan’s site that browsers use as proof that the site is who it says it is. Since I don’t share critical information here anyway, it was safe enough for my purposes.