I offered a draw

I was Black and had just played Bf5-b1,
so it's White to play from this position:



I offered a draw.
White took it.

Human analysis please 🙂

It probably is a draw, tho Black stands better, since 5 of White's 6 pawns are on light squares. But all White need do is shuttle his Bishop between d1 and b3, and you can't make any progress.

My intuition tells me it's a black win. I did some analysis and g5 followed by c5 seems to work, if white doesn't take black shuffles his king to the king side while Bf5 holds back the white king. If white takes en passant the black bishop shuffles to c6 hitting 2 pawns at once. I've gone through a bunch of variations I can't find a way for white to hold his position.

Originally posted by KnightStalker47
My intuition tells me it's a black win. I did some analysis and g5 followed by c5 seems to work, if white doesn't take black shuffles his king to the king side while Bf5 holds back the white king. If white takes en passant the black bishop shuffles to c6 hitting 2 pawns at once. I've gone through a bunch of variations I can't find a way for white to hold his position.

agreed

Amazingly, there wasn't even a need for any pawn push such as g5.
If you are able to break the position down, it becomes quite easy to follow.

Here's how I wish I could have analysed this position, instead of taking the easy draw option:

--------------------------

- It's white to move

- Any pawn move seems to just drop the pawn

- And if the King moves, I would have Kc5 which is quite strong

- Thus he has to move the Bishop

- c2 is not available, so what about b3?

- If Bb3, then Black has f5, allowing Be4 and White's g and h-pawns fall (I completely missed this 🙁)

- If White moves the Bishop off the d1-a4 diagonal, Black has Bc2 winning the a4 pawn.

But what if Be2?

1.Be2 Bc2 2.Bd3 Bxa4* 3. Bxg6 Bd7

*(if ...Bxd3 Kxd3 leads to stalemate)

The point is that Black's a-pawn becomes a runner.
Black will gain more pawns should White try stop the pawn promotion,
thus it is a winning endgame for Black.

--------------------

I just thought this was a good study 🙂 Sure as hell will help improve my endgame technique.

Originally posted by 64squaresofpain
Amazingly, there wasn't even a need for any pawn push such as g5.
If you are able to break the position down, it becomes quite easy to follow.

Here's how I wish I could have analysed this position, instead of taking the easy draw option:

--------------------------

- It's white to move

- Any pawn move seems to just drop the pawn ...[text shortened]...

I just thought this was a good study 🙂 Sure as hell will help improve my endgame technique.

"If your opponent offers a draw, try and work out why he thinks he's worse off." -Short

In this case, before any detailed breakdown is done, it's that many white pawns are stuck on light squares (and thus vulnerable to the Bishop), while all but one of black's are on dark squares.

Originally posted by BigDoggProblem
"If your opponent offers a draw, try and work out why he thinks he's worse off." -Short

In this case, before any detailed breakdown is done, it's that many white pawns are stuck on light squares (and thus vulnerable to the Bishop), while all but one of black's are on dark squares.

Yes, but in this case I never merely offered the draw believing I was worse off, I actually liked my position,
I just simply couldn't see a fluent way to capitalise at the time.

The nail in the coffin that made me offer a draw was that I didn't see a way to force his King to move,
and thought we'd just be Bishop shuffling (I never saw the f5 > Be4 idea, really kicking myself about that)
If I had waited just 1 more move I may have seen it, but impatience got to me.