White to move
The reason I ask is that there should be at least a chance of a draw shouldn't there? After all white's king is in the area of the queening squares f/g/h. From my initial look at it, black is guaranteed to get at least one passed pawn, but why fundamentally cannot white somehow escape with a draw? I'll try to work out the reason thanks to the trusty endgame book I've been using for years "A Guide To Chess Endings" (Euwe DW, Hooper D).
Well according to Doctor Euwe:
ReplyDelete"A pawn up nearly always wins unless one has a serious positional weakness"
1) The player with the extra pawn must take care to avoid the drawn endings of 2 pawn v 1 pawn.
2) The player with the extra pawn is able to expend a tempo without cost
3) The player with the extra pawn can use "triangulation of the king" where necessary
Alright ok fair enough!
The amazing thing is that white cannot draw by stalemate. Black will get an extra pawn but you would think that his positional advantage is not good enough to grab the win and that white who is closest to the queening square should be able to block the black pawn and stalemate. But apparently not!
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