Drawn game

Game 15501540
I offered a draw and my opponent accepted.
I couldn't find a win for white.
I suspect there isn't one

@venda said
Game 15501540
I offered a draw and my opponent accepted.
I couldn't find a win for white.
I suspect there isn't one

Seemed to me there should be and comp agrees.

One idea is to try to block a check with Q on 7th, counter checking black's King.

@bigdogg said
Seemed to me there should be and comp agrees.

One idea is to try to block a check with Q on 7th, counter checking black's King.

That sounds like a good idea, and it's similar to the advice in Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual that the side with the pawn(s) should try to put the king on the same rank or file as that of the opposing king, or on an adjacent rank or file. Another tip in the book is to centralize one's queen. The book acknowledges the complexity of queen and pawn endings and focuses on principles such as the above. Even if a position in such an ending is winning, it might take 50 moves to prove it!

If venda's game had continued after 59.Qb6, here are a few continuations that illustrate how White might have temporarily escaped from checks. Each chess movie has 59.Qb6 as the first move.







These few possibilities show how centralizing White's queen facilitates shielding White's king from checks.

Dvoretsky also advises the defending side's king to try to reach the "opposite" (relative to the center of the board) of the pawn's promotion square, so as to avoid checks that force an exchange of queens. If venda had only a b-pawn, this would imply that Black's king should try to reach the g1 square. But White's having multiple passed pawns makes it less clear where Black's king belongs and gives White greater winning chances.

@fmdavidhlevin said
That sounds like a good idea, and it's similar to the advice in Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual that the side with the pawn(s) should try to put the king on the same rank or file as that of the opposing king, or on an adjacent rank or file. Another tip in the book is to centralize one's queen. The book acknowledges the complexity of queen and pawn endings and focuses ...[text shortened]... passed pawns makes it less clear where Black's king belongs and gives White greater winning chances.

Thanks for the input everyone.
After enduring multiple checks,I didn't see the continuations shown and I suppose I just lost patience.
Just shows that working on endgames is probably as, if not more important than studying openings

Black was possibly more disappointed with the draw.
He was winning for a large part of the game.
Black took their foot off the gas after winning the piece.
White fought their way back into the game.

A difficult ending, of the 8,400 RHP games with this ending 41% were drawn
My main OTB database has 7,700 with 41% drawn (!)

Sometimes the player with the extra pawn or pawns walks into a mate.
These are RHP examples but it has happened OTB as well.

Thanks Geoff.
Gratifying to know a win for white wasn't easy!