Black to move. Can Black hold this?
FEN: 8/5kp1/8/5KPP/8/8/8/8 b – – 0 1
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I would say g6+, hxg6, Kg7. Now, where ever the white king moves, black captures the g6 pawn. Now black has a book draw because the white king cannot get in front of the pawn.
Excellent!! You got it!
Best wishes,
Susan Polgar
http://www.PolgarChess.com
This problem is “black to move” with 1st rank on top. The last problem was “black to move” with 1st rank at bottom. This is arbitrary and confusing. Why not flip the colors/board of every “black to move” problem and standardize on “white to move” and 1st rank at bottom?
I give my thinking process:
Critical squares are h6-g6-f6
(one square ahead of the pawn when it has passed the middle line, two squares ahead when not).
If black can control these squares, even if (miracle) white has a K-P vs K ending with one of his pawns (h5 or g5) it would be a draw. (If no other tricks…it’s just a general rule…)
So if black moves his king, the critical g6 square will not be covered anymore (white king will take it and win (Kg6 …– h6 …gxh6 kxh6 …)). Black’s king is stuck.
The g pawn must move and… look at the clever answer given by Chesschick!
PS: It would be great if some of you could tell HOW you find the right answer: Is it a well known pattern and the solution just “jump in front of you”, do you calculate variations till you find the right move, do you try logical move accordingly to “similar patterns”, do you have other “rules of thumb” and so on…
It would also be great if some of you tell me when there are flaw in my ideas…
Thanks… and bravo to Chesschick
Have a nice day
The Nalimov tablebase server of Lokasoft – http://www.lokasoft.nl/tbweb.htm
gives g6+ as the only drawing move. The remaining 4 first black moves (with King) lead to mate in 15 or 16.
Kudos to chesschick.
Thanks to these endgames, i’m feeling that I am improving a bit. I got g6+ immediately.
They are kinda fun to do too.
Rastamann.
Susan, great puzzle! Thanks for indicating the solution was correct.
Can you give some information on Mtel Masters? I just found out that Kamsky will be there. The official press release says so on veselintopalov.net.
Do you think Kamsky will win?
Spent a little bit with this wondering why Susan was asking if Black could hold instead of how Black would win. Then I noticed the board was reversed (having not noticed the rank and file numbers, and …g6+ popped up immediately. Not brilliant endgame intuition, it was just the first thing I tried.
Some people say that a stalemate in chess is not really a good rule. Therefore White always wins in this position 😉