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Kd6! if Kd4, then 2.Kc6 Kc3 3.Kd5! b3 4.Ke4 b2 5.Ba2 and draws.
Could someone explain what is the idea here?
To tell what should White do, in words.
“Kd6! if Kd4, then 2.Kc6 Kc3 3.Kd5! b3 4.Ke4 b2 5.Ba2 and draws.”
and what if 1.Kd6 Kd4 2.Kc6 Ke5! ?
-Chris
”and what if 1.Kd6 Kd4 2.Kc6 Ke5! ?”
1.Kd6 Kd4
2.Kc6 Ke5
3.Kd7! h3
[3…. b3 4.Bxb3 h3 5.Ba4 and next Bc6=]
4.Bxh3 b3
5.Be6 and next Ba2=
Why is this not as simple as Bd7? The bishop can constrain the b-pawn and the king can hold the h-pawn by himself. Looks like a dead draw. What am I missing?
Why is this not as simple as Bd7?
1.Bd7? b3!
Now the bishop is committed to the b-pawn, and White’s king cannot catch the h-pawn.
The same thing happens, with roles reversed, after 1.Bf7? h3!
To me, the hardest part of this problem is figuring out why 1.Kf6 isn’t good enough. Basically, what happens is that after 1.Kd6 White can, in some lines, play Ba2 to corral the b-pawn. After 1.Kf6, though, there’s no analogous square (i2? is past the edge of the board) for the bishop to keep an eye on the h-pawn.