An interesting pawn endgame

Yesterday while I was browsing through some books with different pawn studies my attention was captured by this one.
White to play and win:

It is a bit more challenging than it seems

Originally posted by ilywrin
Yesterday while I was browsing through some books with different pawn studies my attention was captured by this one.
White to play and win:
[fen]5k2/8/8/p7/8/8/1P6/2K5 [/fen]
It is a bit more challenging than it seems

Kb1!

Originally posted by ilywrin
Yesterday while I was browsing through some books with different pawn studies my attention was captured by this one.
White to play and win:
[fen]5k2/8/8/p7/8/8/1P6/2K5 [/fen]
It is a bit more challenging than it seems

well, the next line seems obvious:

1. Kc2 Kd7 2. Kb3 Kd6 3. Ka4 Kc6 4. Kxa5 etc

but I guess there's more to it, orelse you wouldnt have posted it

Originally posted by marinakatomb
Kb1!

1.Kb1? Ke7! 2.Ka(c)2 Kd6 3.Kb3 Kc5 4.Ka4 Kb6 =

Originally posted by schakuhr
well, the next line seems obvious but I guess there's more to it, orelse you wouldnt have posted it.

1. Kc2 Kd7 2. Kb3 Kd6 3. Ka4 Kc6 4. Kxa5 etc

but I guess there's more to it, orelse you wouldnt have posted it

Well 1...Ke7 is not the strongest answer Black has. Why not try 1...a4!

Originally posted by ilywrin
Well 1...Ke7 is not the strongest answer Black has. Why not try 1...a4!

hmm, I could've guessed that, white can't win if his pawn gets on the a-line. but then 1. Kc2! lures the black pawn 1 square closer, and then white can play the line of marinakatomb (Kb1) with 1 tempo more, and thus wins.

Originally posted by schakuhr
hmm, I could've guessed that, white can't win if his pawn gets on the a-line. but then 1. Kc2! lures the black pawn 1 square closer, and then white can play the line of marinakatomb (Kb1) with 1 tempo more, and thus wins.

Well, of course there's also 2...a3! to be considered

Originally posted by ilywrin
Well, of course there's also 2...a3! to be considered

but that's quite obvious, white will play 3.b3, then take the black pawn in the next few moves and march on to victory.

1.Kc2 a4! and white must play 2.Kb1. Should he play 2.Kc3 then a3! follows and black draws in all variations:
- 3.axb3? Ke7 and black can easily hold against K+a-pawn
- 3.b4? a2 4.Kb2 a1Q 5.Kxa1 Ke7 and white cannot get in front of his pawn
- 3.b3? then black plays Ke7 first. The white pawn stands in the way of his king. If 4.b4 then a2 follows as above. If white tries 4.Kc2 then again a2 5.Kb2 a1Q 6.Kxa1 Kd6 with the same position as above one rank lower. White cannot get in front of the pawn and black will win opposition, enough to draw.

After 1.Kc2 a4 2.Kb1 a3 does not work because with 3.b3 white avoids exchange without over-extending the b-pawn or standing in the way of the king. He will get in front of the b-pawn after capturing the a-pawn. Example: 3. ... Ke7 4.Ka2 Kd6 5.Kxa3 Kc5 6.Ka4 and wins (Kb6 then 7.Kb4 takes opposition; Kc6 then 6.Ka5)

Thank you Mephisto for posting the whole variation 🙂