White to move. Is this a win or draw for White? How should White proceed?
8/8/p1N5/1k6/8/7K/7P/8 w – – 0 63
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Sorry, but I don’t know.
lol. i think everyone who doesn’t know the answer should post, so we get an accurate headcount.
I believe that 1.Na5 wins as h8=Q keeps the a1 square under control…but too bored to count…:P
Nb8 looks winning.
This one is pretty easy if you play lots of king pawn endgames, and know how to count.
1.Na5 Kxa5 2.Kg4 and forwarding the pawn h, white wins
All white need do is play
1. Na5!! Ka5 (what else now?)
2. Kg4 Kb5 (everything loses)
3. h4
And white will queen one move ahead and have a1 covered, so I won’t continue the analysis of the line in which black pushes his a-pawn, but he also loses if he tries to get his king to h8 (the king is outside the box of the queening pawn formed by h4/d4/d8/h8:
3. ……Kc5
4. h5 Kd6
5. h6 Ke7
6. h7 Kf7
7. h8(Q).
1.Na5! Kxa5 2.Kg4! Kb4 3.h4 a5… 6…a2 7.h8/Q Kb3 8.Qa1 +-
Who play this game, anyway?
if 1.Kg4, Kxc6; 2.h4,Kd7 black king stops white pawn
so
1.Na5
a) if 1…,Kxa5; then 2.Kg4 and win
b) if 1…,Kc5; then white advance with king to g6 and pawn to h6, black king move to g8 and h8.
At this point white knight go to f7 to protect promotion in h8
My way
Na5 and white will queen first
1. Na5 looks promising. Black can either run back to h8 or take the Knight and try to queen his own pawn, but both plans fail:
1. … Kxa5
2. Kg4 Kb6 (or Kb4)
3. h4 and Black’s King is out of the queening square, White’s pawn queens first and covers a1, and Black’s King is too far away for the King + Rook pawn vs. Queen draw to be a factor.
1. … Kc5
2. Kg4 Kd6
3. Kf5 Ke7
4. Kg6 Kf8 and if the Queenside disappeared this would be a draw, but:
5. h4 Kg8
6. h5 Kh8
7. h6 Kg8
8. h7+ Kh8
9. Nb7 a5
10. Nd8 a4
11. Nf7#
a win?. i think the answer is to put the night on c2. if the black king chases we place the night on a1 and start advancing our h pawn. if the black king heads to h8, we set the night on a3 and then checkmate the black king on h8 with Nc4->e5->f7(of course, this is after advancing the h pawn to trap the black king on h8).
This is an easy win for white. Start with Na5. After Kxa5, move king out of the way, and queen 5 moves later.
Queen protects a1 and b2, black king can not protect the pawn. White king moves towards the pawn to grab it.
Well, it’s a matter of tempi, and the way to gain a couple is to play 1. Na5 immediately. That wins. I tried 1. Kg4 first, and always found myself drawing and even losing. I wasted 2 minutes on that before kicking myself for not having found 1. Na5 immediately.
BTW, it is always a temptation when there are problems with 6 pieces or less (except for 5 versus lone king) to access the web interface to the Nalimov databases. I have been able to resist that temptation of resorting to Nalimov when solving these problems, but sometimes it is just a matter of pride which keeps me from succumbing.
It is a good resource, however, when studying basic endgames, and if one can use it ONLY AFTER TRYING ONES DARNDEST FIRST TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM ONESELF, then it can be a valuable resource. So, to throw temptation your way, here is the URL:
For readers of German: http://www.k4it.de/index.php?topic=egtb&lang=de
For readers of English: http://www.k4it.de/index.php?topic=egtb&lang=en
You can even paste the “fen” notation for a position into the web interface rather than having to drag around the pieces.
After finding 1. Na5 first myself as the solution, I checked Nalimov, and found out that there is another winning 1st move: 1. Nd4+. But, you know what: I don’t care about that. I thought of 1. Na5, I understand the logic of it, and it wins. That’s good enough.
Lucymarie
Hello
I think that
1. Na5 wins because if black King capture the Knight, he must retire so that his pawn advances and the white pawn will promote a movement before the black.
Greetings from Spain
@Anonymous 2:07. It would be an accurate headcount only if you offset those who use a computer to get the right answer with those who use a computer not to get it. 🙂
White wins easily with
1. Na5! after which he will win the race to queen by one move.
For example 1. Na5 Kxa5 2. Kg4 Kb4 3. h4 a5 4. h5 a4 5. h6 a3 6. h7 a2 7. h8=Q
This does not need calculation, only counting. After 1. … Kxa5 it will take both sides one K move and five pawn moves to Q. It is white to move and a Q on h8 commands a1, so white will win.
Also simply 1. Kg4 at once wins in much the same way.
win
na5
if king takes knight, he cant stop white from queening.
If king goes back to stop the pawn, white’s king and pawn will move up to g6 and h6 and then nc6 ne5 nf7 to win
Tommy K. says:
I think this is a win for white.
The key move I believe is
1.Na5. This serves two purposes.
It blocks the a-file preventing
the advance of the a pawn if the
King should try to race to h8.
If instead the King takes the Knight
on a5 the white pawn will promote
first and cover the a1 square
preventing Black’s promotion. Lets
take a look at both lines.
1.Na5 Kc5
2.Kg4 Kd6
3.Kg5 Ke7
4.Kg6 Kf8
5.h4 Kg8
6.h5 Kh8
7.h6 Kg8
8.h7+ Kh8 (if…Kf8, 9.h8=Q)
9.Nc6 a5
10.Ne5 a4
11.Nf7#
1.Na5 Kxa5
2.Kg4 Kb5
3.h4
and we can see that the black king is
“outside the square” and can not prevent
white from promoting the h pawn.
…Kc5
4.h5 Kd6
5.h6 Ke7
6.h7 Kf7
7.h8=Q
and white will win easily. The only
Other option is to try to promote
on a1, but we can see that white will
Queen first and cover a1 from h8.
4.h4 a5
5.h5 a4
6.h6 a3
7.h7 a2
8.h8=Q
and white will win.
1.Na5 and the Knight cannot be taken. H’ever as the Black pawn has a long way to go,even trying to block the White pawn with his King cannot save Black,as he gets mated anyway.
Amar
Ed, after Kg4 Kc6 Black is in the square of the pawn