This is an endgame excercise. It is Black to move. You can practice against your friends or computer. As Black, you want to try to win. As White, you will try to hold. Have fun 🙂
This is tough. In Bishops of opposite color endings pawns aren’t necessarily important, so given that I’m tempted as Black to sac the h-, g- and e- pawns in order to draw the Bishop off the defense of the c4 pawn. But after 1… h5 2. gxh5 g4 3. fxg4 e4 4. Bxe4 Kxc4 5. Kxa3 Kc3, White only has to get his Bishop on the a2-g8 diagonal, sac his Bishop for the last Black pawn, and game is drawn.
So now I’m tempted to begin with 1… e4, where 2. fxe4 allows Black to create a passed pawn after 2…h5 3. gxh5 Bd4, and 2. Bxe4 allows the c4 pawn to fall. I’m not very strong on endgames though… still working on it
Now I like Black to start with …Bc1, …Bb2, …Kc3 followed by …Kd4. This seems to improve the position, prevent the unnecessary loss of the pawn on a3, and I don’t see that White can make progress in the meantime. Then after the aforementioned breaks Black will have a King closer to the action and can hang onto the a3 pawn for longer.
Now White will have to keep the King watching the a3 pawn. Now I would work the Black King to h4, trade off White’s f- and g- pawns for Black’s g- and h- pawns, and now I see no way that White can 1) keep an eye on the a3 pawn, 2) keep the c4 pawn from falling, and 3) keep the e4 pawn from advancing.
The idea of sacrificing g and h-pawns in order to create a passed e-pawn seems right – just need to execute the timing correctly.
To be safe, Black should make sure that the Be3 is at b2 first, to control the long diagonal, to take care of White’s passed g & h pawns, before sacrificing.
So, I would improve Black’s Bishop and King position first before sacrificing.
1..Bc1, 2…Bb2, 3…Kc3, then, when Bd5 is no longer at d5, then, 4..h5 5.gh5 g4 6.fg4 e4! 7.Bd5 e3 8.Bf3 Kd2 and 9…e2 10.Bxe2 Kxe2 and after winning the Bishop, winning the rest of the pawn ending is trivial – Black just need to make sure that he has one last pawn at c5.
This is tough. In Bishops of opposite color endings pawns aren’t necessarily important, so given that I’m tempted as Black to sac the h-, g- and e- pawns in order to draw the Bishop off the defense of the c4 pawn. But after 1… h5 2. gxh5 g4 3. fxg4 e4 4. Bxe4 Kxc4 5. Kxa3 Kc3, White only has to get his Bishop on the a2-g8 diagonal, sac his Bishop for the last Black pawn, and game is drawn.
So now I’m tempted to begin with 1… e4, where 2. fxe4 allows Black to create a passed pawn after 2…h5 3. gxh5 Bd4, and 2. Bxe4 allows the c4 pawn to fall. I’m not very strong on endgames though… still working on it
Now I like Black to start with …Bc1, …Bb2, …Kc3 followed by …Kd4. This seems to improve the position, prevent the unnecessary loss of the pawn on a3, and I don’t see that White can make progress in the meantime. Then after the aforementioned breaks Black will have a King closer to the action and can hang onto the a3 pawn for longer.
Now White will have to keep the King watching the a3 pawn. Now I would work the Black King to h4, trade off White’s f- and g- pawns for Black’s g- and h- pawns, and now I see no way that White can 1) keep an eye on the a3 pawn, 2) keep the c4 pawn from falling, and 3) keep the e4 pawn from advancing.
How about
1… h5 2.gh5 g4
3. fg4 Lc1!( to protect a3)
and White is in zugzwang.
4.Kb1? Kb3!
4.Le4 Kxc4
4. Le6 e4
The idea of sacrificing g and h-pawns in order to create a passed e-pawn seems right – just need to execute the timing correctly.
To be safe, Black should make sure that the Be3 is at b2 first, to control the long diagonal, to take care of White’s passed g & h pawns, before sacrificing.
So, I would improve Black’s Bishop and King position first before sacrificing.
1..Bc1, 2…Bb2, 3…Kc3, then, when Bd5 is no longer at d5, then, 4..h5 5.gh5 g4 6.fg4 e4! 7.Bd5 e3 8.Bf3 Kd2 and 9…e2 10.Bxe2 Kxe2 and after winning the Bishop, winning the rest of the pawn ending is trivial – Black just need to make sure that he has one last pawn at c5.