26 Mar 06
1 edit
Originally posted by WulebgrWhite play a6 and black can't touch either pawn. After that black pushes his pawns and the white king goes after them. Eventually black won't be able to make a decent pawn move and will move his king and bam! white pushes his pawns and queens.
Who has the advantage? White to move.
[fen]1k6/4ppp1/2P5/P7/8/8/8/2K5 w - - 0 1[/fen]
Edit: again when I first saw this position the black pawns were on the 6th rank and the white king was on the right side of the board.
Man these people keep changing puzzles to their preference!
26 Mar 06
Originally posted by WulebgrFrom this position give, It looks wierd. It seem like you can somehow manage to get 1 of those 3 pawns to queen since they are lined up perfectly right now.
This one comes from James Mason, 1894. But, it was Jozsef Szen that first solved the king vs. three connected pawns earlier in the nineteenth century.
2 pawns vs a lone king, the king can manage.
But 3 nice pawns like that still on the starting square vs a long king an they can't queen 🙁 Strange.
But I'm still sticking with my solution though. White wins!
26 Mar 06
Originally posted by GalaxyShieldYou got your line all messed up. Black can't keep his pawns all nice.
a6 g5 Kc2 g4 Ke3 f5 Kf3 d5 and where can white go from there? Black should be able to check the king a couple times while keeping the pawns connected.
After a6, blacks king can't move anywhere. If he does, one of the pawns queens. If the king moves on the a file then c7, c file then a7.
K so 1.a6 g5 2.Kd2 g4 3.Ke3 f5 4.Kf4 e5+ 5.Kg3
Now what? 5...f4+ 6.Kxg4
5...e4 6.Kf4! and pawns drop or black moves the king and the white pawn queens.
26 Mar 06
I played it against Fritz:
[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1894.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Mason, J."]
[Black "?"]
[Result "1-0"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "1k6/4ppp1/2P5/P7/8/8/8/2K5 w - - 0 1"]
[PlyCount "21"]
[EventDate "2005.12.31"]
[SourceDate "2005.12.31"]
1. a6 {0} g5 {2} 2. Kd2 {2} f6 {2} 3. Ke3 {5} f5 {4} 4. Kf3 {6} e6 {2} 5. Ke2 {
0} g4 {2} 6. Kf2 {1} f4 {6} 7. Kf1 {0} g3 {2} 8. Kg2 {10} e5 {0} 9. Kf3 {13}
e4+ {0} 10. Kg2 {3} e3 {1} 11. Kf3 {1} 1-0
29 Mar 06
Originally posted by BigDoggProblemA once area that humans are sometimes better then computers.
It takes Fritz 9 all of about 25 seconds to see that White is winning easily. A key position occurs after:
1.a6 f5 2.Kd2 e5 3.Ke3 g5 4.Kf2
[fen]1k6/8/P1P5/4ppp1/8/8/5K2/8 b - - 0 4[/fen]
White responds to any black pawn move by blockading that pawn with the King, and the others are not far advanced enough to create a diversion.
I don't know about the rest of you guys, but as soon as I saw the puzzle I posted the solution and I only had to look at the position for 6 seconds.
29 Mar 06
Originally posted by RahimKWell, you should have taken a longer look. You managed to pick the correct side with the advantage, but some of your reasoning is flawed.
I don't know about the rest of you guys, but as soon as I saw the puzzle I posted the solution and I only had to look at the position for 6 seconds.
In particular, one of the lines you gave:
1.a6 f6 2.Kd2 e6 3.Ke3 g6 4.Kf4 f5 5.Kf3 g5 6.Ke3 e5 7.Kf3 f4 8.Kf2
e4 9.Ke2 g4 10.Kf2 f3 11.Kf1 e3 12.Ke1 g3 13.Kf1 e2+ 14.Ke1 g2 15.Kf2
is actually won for Black after 15...g1Q+! followed by 16...e1Q+.