White to move. How should White proceed?
8/8/6p1/1k6/4K3/8/5P2/8 w – – 0 1
Dobias 1926, presented by Andreas
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Special endgame
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White to move. How should White proceed?
8/8/6p1/1k6/4K3/8/5P2/8 w – – 0 1
Dobias 1926, presented by Andreas
Kd4
Why not 1.Kd5
Sorry, I meant Kd5
Because if
1. Kd5 Kb4
2. f4 Kc3
3. Ke4 Kd2
4. Kf5 Ke3 and white cannot progress
or
1. Kd5 Kb4
2. Ke6 Kc4
3. Kf6 Kd4
4. Kxg6 Ke4 and the white king is too far from the pawn.
1.Kd4 prevents the black kind from manoeuvering up to the white pawn.
e.g.
1. Kd4 Kb4
2. f4! and black must lose a move preventing him from cathing up with the f pawn.
or
1. Kd4 Kc6
2. Ke5 … and black cannot
or
1. Kd4 g5
1. Ke5 and this will transpose to the second variation given, but with white’s king in g5 instead of g6, allowing for a timely f4.
I checked with Fritz 8 and it gave mate in 255 moves!
Obviously something is wrong with your fritz 8.
“Special” is right. Who among us wouldn’t intuitively grab the opposition with 1.Kd5? But it doesn’t win; 1.Kd4, intentionally giving up the opposition, does. What a strange game is chess.