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White has to play 1. Ke3 to take the distant opposition. If 1. Ke4, then Black plays 1…Kd6, and the White King must retreat, after which Black will be able to trade off the center pawns and head for h8.
1.Ke3! Kd6 2.Ke4! Kc6 3.Ke5 Kd7 4.Kf4 +-
In endings like this, it often helps to understand why the wrong moves are wrong:
1. Ke5
This is the natural looking, aggressively advancing move, and it definitely invites black to make a mistake, but if he doesn’t err, black will draw:
1. …..Kd6!
Here, Kf6, or, indeed, any other move, is going to lose. For example: [1. …Kf6 2.Kf4! e5 (or give white a passed h-pawn with no hope of liquidating the central pawns) 3.de5 Ke6 4.Ke4! Kf7 5.Kf5 Ke7 6.Kg4 Ke6 7.Kf4 wins]. Or [1. …Kd7 2.Ke5 Ke7 3.Kf4 Kd6 (going for the d-pawn) 4.Kg4! e5 (or Kd5 5.h4 and the white pawn will queen two moves before black’s) 5.de5 Ke5 6.Kg5 Ke6 (trying to get to the corner first) 7.Kg6 Ke7 (Ke5 8.h4 wins) 8.Kg7 Ke6 (now trying to get to the pawn) 9.h4 Kf5 10.h5 and the pawn cannot be stopped]. Or [Kf7 2.Kf4 Kf6 3.Kg4 e5 4.de5 Ke5 5. Kg5 with the same position as before]. Continuing:
2. Kf4
Here, nothing wins for white now, but this is the most important line. Continuing:
2. …..Kd5
3. Kg4
Or [3.Ke3 e5 4.de5 Ke5=]. Continuing:
3. …..Kd4! (e5 4.de5 Ke5 5.Kg5+-)
4. h4 Ke5!
Black cannot tie this race- white will queen with check when black’s pawn is on the second rank- a common motif in a lot of pawn races. Continuing:
5. Kg5
On h5, the black king plays to f6 and makes it to the corner for the draw. Kg5 is the only hope for winning, but black now has a drawing reply, one that isn’t easy to see without playing it out on an actual board, but is one I have seen in actual games on several occasions:
5. …..Kd6! (still headed for h8!)
6. h5
On Kf6 or Kg6, black plays e5 and black’s pawn will now queen a move after white’s does for a draw. Continuing:
6. …..Ke7 (only move)
7. Kg6
Or [7.h6 Kf7 (or Kf8) 8.h7 Kg7=]. Continuing:
7. …..Kf8! (only move)
And white must allow the black king into the corner, or else block his own pawn with the king at h7:
8. Kh7 Kf7
And this is drawn even if white plays h6 trapping his king permanently on the h-file as he can always get stalemate with Kh8 and h7 before black can queen.
So, why was 1.Ke4 the wrong move? It allowed black to take an effective opposition vs the white king by playing to d6- on move 2, and white had to to give ground on the d-pawn because his own pawn occupied d4, and the black king was threatening Kd5 if white retreated to d3, getting a true opposition and a pretty clear draw. What white must do is to force black to play to d6, if he does, when the white king is within reach of e4.
Continued in my next comment.
In my previous comment, I showed that black can force a draw if the white king plays to e4 on his first move. This allowed black to play to d6 which forced white to either give ground with Kd3/e3, or to give up the d-pawn to win black’s g-pawn by playing 2.Kf4, and while white gained a visual kind of advantage by racing his h-pawn out a move ahead of black’s passed e-pawn, the combination of e-pawn advances and threats to get the black king to h8 allowed black to obtain a draw with proper play. The correct technique is gain a key tempo by bringing the white king to e4 after black plays his to d6 in order to push the black king back to the seventh rank with white’s on the fourth allowing white to win g4 with a move in hand he didn’t have previously. This immediately suggests the correct move, and I think the only move to win:
1. Ke3!
Here, black has pawns moves that simply concede the game. He also has the king moves to d6, f6, d7, and f7 (we will ignore the moves to the 8th rank since they are worse variations of the seventh rank moves. We will take the king moves in order:
1. …..Kd6
The drawing move from the previous comment, but now, white wins the key tempo to win the game:
2. Ke4
Here, 2.Kf4 is a transpostion to the drawing line from my previous comment. What white wants to do is to force the black king back to the seventh rank before playing Kf4, or two moves from d5. Continuing:
2. …..Kd7 (Kc7/e7 4.Kf4 anyway)
Here, 3. …Kc6 is met by Ke5! forcing black to d7 anyway, at which point white then plays Kf4 transposing to the line below. Continuing:
3. Kf4 Kd6
Here, the only important variation is 3. ….e5: [3. …e5 4.de5 Ke6 5.Kg4 (5.Ke4 wins, too) Ke5 6.Kg5! with a position from the last comment where the h-pawn cannot be stopped due the lateral king vs king opposition that white holds]. Continuing:
4. Kg4 e5
Here, Kd5 is clearly lost, too: [4….Kd5 5.h4 Kd4 (e5 6.de5 Ke5 7.Kg5+-) 6.h5 e5 7.h6 e4 8.h7 e3 9.h8Q e2 10.Qh1+-]. Continuing:
5. de5 Ke5
6. Kg5 with the same winning position we saw earlier.
Back at move 1, black could try Kf6, but that is lost, too:
1. Ke3 Kf6
2. Kf4
Here, Ke4 wins, too. Continuing:
2. …..Kg6
3. Kg4 with an easy win.
Or
1. Ke3 Kd7
2. Kf4 Kd6
3. Kg4 e5
4. de5 Ke5
5. Kg5 with that familiar winning position.
And, lastly;
1. Ke3 Kf7
2. Kf4 Kf6
3. Kg4 and this will reduce to either black allowing the h-pawn to queen like before, or chasing it down and allowing white to win the e-pawn and queen the d-pawn.
All in all, Ke3 is a winning move, and the exact kind of move a winning chess player needs to learn and understand intuitively.
Ke4 Kd6 Kf4 Kd5 Kxg4 Kxd4 and now: h-pawn is one move quicker and wins the game
e3
Ke4 then try to get the g pawn then push the h pawn. This should win for white.
I can’t see exactly why, but I’m pretty sure 1. Ke4 draws. A timely g3 by black may ensure both sides can promote.
1. Ke3 seems best. That way, white can hold off black a bit longer: 1. .. Kd6 2. Ke4
If 2. .. c6 3. Ke5, if 2. .. e6/7 3. Kf4 and white gains the pawn without needing to worry about black’s e pawn getting a passage.
Anonymous 1 is wrong and only draws after Ke4?. If you go for
1.Ke4 then both are queening at the same time. Show variations please! The correct move is 1.Ke3! with a distant opposition.
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Anonimous 1 is right. White promotes with check so black can’t promote. The ending is then won in the classic way.und
In the line that starts with Ke4, white does not promote with check unless black allows it. What Asher is talking about is a key line in which the black king captures on d4 and races the e-pawn with the h-pawn, but that is not what black will do if he knows what he is doing.
1 Ke3 is the right move.White king should triangulate in such a way that he goes to f4 when black king is on 7th rank.After that it takes 6 moves to queen for white. At that time black king will use 2 moves for capturing on d4 and 3 pawn movese5-e4-e3. On checking Black king is forced to d3 and now Kf3 wins for white. If black avoids check on white’s queening by Kd3 then his pawn will be on e4 only and white easily wins by Qh2.