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White to Play

Pete Tamburro on

Published in Chess Puzzles

Day 4 of chess summer school. Many of you may be familiar with "the rule of the square" just to determine whether a king can catch a pawn on its way to queen. In our diagram, the white king has to stay in the "square" defined by the point d4,g4, g1 and d1. So how does White win this? The white pawns can't go up the board on their own.


A study by Horwitz and Kling. 1.Ke4 Kg4 2.h4 Kh5 3.Kf4 White stays within the square, but forces Black back so the pawns can advance. 3...Kh6 4.g4 Kg6 5.h5+ Kh6 If you recall the lesson on triangulation, this is another example. White wants to be on f4 with it being Black' turn to move and thus go backwards. So he loses a move by triangulating. 6.Ke4 Kg5 7.Kf3 Kh6 8.Kf4 Kh7 9.g5 Kg7 10.g6 Kh6 11.Kg4 The outer corner of the square. Can't step outside it or the black pawn will queen. So, what does White do here?11...Kg7 12.Kg5!! Here's what White does! White lets the pawn queen! 12...d3 13.h6+ Kh8 14.Kf6 d2 15.Kf7 d1Q 16.g7+ Kh7 17.g8Q+ Kxh6 18.Qg6# Thus, if you have a king and two connected pawns against a king with a passed pawn ready to move, count it out to see if you can mate if you let the other person's pawn go. You have learned that there can be more to the rule of the square than just chasing a pawn.

 


Send questions and comments to PTamburro@aol.com.

 

 

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