This puzzle looks hard, but the basic ideas of it are simple, but it still is a little tricky. Can white win this with best play for both sides? Bonus point if you can figure out the winning theme. Again as before, give time for others to answer.
White to move
This is a common structure in the Ruy Lopez exchange, which is more the reason to pay close attention to it, especially if you play it.
Originally posted by Restless SoulWhite's two pawns that stand the best chance of queening are his E and F file pawns. White should make sure that he has these two pawns connected in the center. Those pawns would force the black king to defend those, allowing white to create weakness's on the queenside and scoop up blacks pawns, hopefully keeping one of his own so he can pick up those and push his own pawn while black is busy taking care of whites central pawns. So I guess my plan would be to preserve my center pawns, bring my king to the center to protect them, then create weakness on the queenside and queen a pawn there with the protection of my king.
[fen]4k3/1pp2ppp/p1p5/8/4P3/8/PPP2PPP/4K3 w - - 0 1[/fen]
White to move
edit: Yes I think white will be able to win this endgame with best play.
Perosnally, I wouldn't touch the queenside pawns until black advances his'. You know that the three pawns can stop the 4 (if not supported by the king). The easiest way is the a3, b2, c3 or the a4, b3, c4 setup. But white wants to play kingside and centre, hoping to promote a pawn. For that reason, I would grab space there first, and keep the distance of the black king to the white queenside pawns as large as possible (to avoid race complications later on). So, my choice would be f4 first and then Ke2 (or the other way around) and try to force a freepawn as high up as possible. I think there are good winning chances.
Originally posted by Restless SoulThe first step is to bring the king closer to the pawns and then one should expand on the kingside since the mobilization of the majority is the right way to exploit the quasi-extra pawn. Since both sides there is only a little space of penetration, which demands a certain amount of precision.
This puzzle looks hard, but the basic ideas of it are simple, but it still is a little tricky. Can white win this with best play for both sides? Bonus point if you can figure out the winning theme. Again as before, give time for others to answer.
[fen]4k3/1pp2ppp/p1p5/8/4P3/8/PPP2PPP/4K3 w - - 0 1[/fen]
White to move
This is a common structur ...[text shortened]... opez exchange, which is more the reason to pay close attention to it, especially if you play it.
1.Ke2 Ke7 2.Ke3 Ke6 3. f4 c5 4.c4 c6 5.a4 b5 6.b3!
White now has a kind of formation on the queenside against black can't create a passed pawn. 6.cxb5? cxb5! would of course give up the whole advantage of the position and would be drawn.
6...f6 7.g4
now 7.a5? gives away the decisive spare tempo. After 7.a5?, black can draw with 7...g6! 8.g4 Kd6 9.h4 h6! 10.Kf3 Ke7 11.h5 g5! 12.e5 gxf4 13.exf6+ Kf7 14.Kxf4 Kxf6! 15.Ke4 Ke6 16.Kf4 Kf6! 17.g5+ hxg5! 18.Kg4! b4! 19.h6 Kg6! 20.h7! Kxh7! 21.Kxg5 Kg7! = (Speelman in Endgame Preparation)
7...g6 8.f5+ gxf5 9.exf5+ Ke5 10.h3 bxa4 11.bxa4 a5 12.h4 h6 13.Kf3! h5 14.gxh5 1-0
Educational endgame to say the least.
Published by M. Euwe in Deutsche Schachzeitung, 1940