Chess Summer School Day 5. This is one of my all-time favorite king and pawn endings. Grandmaster Lev Alburt showed this to a group of us in New York many years ago. It showed up again in this Chess Training Pocket Book II. It shows again, in a different "environment," that concepts like understanding when you have to be "in the square" and triangulation--and, of course, counting sometimes all show up in one position!The question is, in this position, that since White can't force through a pawn on the kingside and seemingly can't afford to allow the opposite king to capture his lone kingside pawn and get his own pawn to queen on h1, then how is White going to get his queenside pawn majority rolling when Black can just capture if he moves one of those?

1.Ke3 The start of the triangulation from f4–e3–f3. Why? White wants the black king on f6 when he makes his third move.White can win with 1.c4 bxc3 2.Ke3 c2 3.Kd2 c1Q+ 4.Kxc1 Kg5 5.a4 Kxg4 6.b4 h5 7.bxa5! Count! White needs to be on the a8 square to stop h1=Q. b5 won't do that. 7...h4 8.a6 h3 9.a7 Kg3 10.a8Q but the way chosen is neater. 1...Kg5 2.Kf3 Kf6 3.c4! bxc3 4.Ke3 Kg5 5.a4! Because one square forward doesn't work. Count! 5.a3 Kxg4 6.b4 axb4 7.axb4 Kf5 8.Kd3 h5 9.b5 Ke6 10.Kxc3 h4 and Black wins. 5...Kxg4 6.b4 axb4 7.Kd3! Another nice king move as pushing the pawn just draws. 7.a5 b3 8.Kd3 b2 9.Kc2 Kf3 10.a6 Ke2 11.a7 b1Q+ 12.Kxb1 Kd2 13.a8Q c2+ 14.Ka2 c1Q 7...h5 8.a5 and White wins the race. Just to show beginners: 8...h4 9.a6 h3 10.a7 Kg3 11.a8Q c2 12.Kxc2 b3+ 13.Kxb3 Kh2 For beginners, it's worth noting that, in certain circumstances a bishop pawn or rook pawn on the 7th rank, accompanied by its king, will draw against a queen. That is another lesson! Here, the pawn is on the 6th rank, so it doesn't matter. The queen doesn't even need the king. 14.Qf3 Kg1 15.Qg3+ Kh1 16.Qf2! h2 17.Qf1#

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