Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Critical endgame pattern


White to move. Is this a win, draw, or loss for White?

8/5p2/8/3k4/5P1P/1p6/pK6/8 w - - 0 1
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3 comments:

T. F. said...

Looks like an obvious loss ? The king can't block the 2 pawns (the one protecting the other one)

Anonymous said...

Whit wins
h5 Ke6
h6 Kf6
f5!
and the king can't advance toward the h pawn.

Anonymous said...

At first I'm thinking, easy win for white because as the h pawn is rushed down the board black can't stay in it's square after:

h5 Ke6
h6 Kf6
f5

and black is in zugzwang.

We have to check out black's resources too though, so what if black tries to queen?

h5 Kc4
h6 a1=Q+
Kxa1 Kc3
h7

And black is too slow.

Trying to help the f pawn is slower, and I don't see a stalemate setup for black -- seems like white to move is +/- while black to move is of course -/+

White should win :D