Rapidfire, it's black's move, black can just take the pawn with the bishop. How on earth is white going to win with no pieces?

Even if it was white's move, the bishop can cover the queening square and will always be able to take the newly promoted piece.

Thanks for your courteous question.

How on earth is that a draw when the pawn can be advanced and promoted?

Way to many variations... Best tip: Have a better opening and mid game to avoid endings like these.

Loomis, in your lines Black delays advacing his pawns while White proceeds to advance his own. Black wins by getting his pawns rolling earlier and avoiding forks. Eg, 13...b4 14.axb4 axb4 15.Kf5 b3 16.Kxf6 Kd3! 17.Nd1 Kd2 18.Nb2 Kc2 19.Na4 Be8 20.Nb6 Bb5! 0-1

 

And yes, a complex and interesting endgame! 

 

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That looks like a good plan for black. But in my opinion you are playing pretty poor moves for white. On moves 8 and 9 white plays g3 and then g4. This is obviously just slow.

 

In fact, white can play g4 on move 7 instead of 7. Ke3. Then  Moving the king to e3 seems like a mistake because you allow black the d5 square for his king.

 

You give "11. Nb3 or else a4 locks the knight down for a while." The knight didn't go anywhere useful from b3, just wasted moves going to a5 and back to b3. White should try to make progress on the kingside instead.  Not sure this actually gets a draw, but it seems a better plan. 

Where's the fault here?  The key difference is that black moves his bishop to d5 to better fend off the knight while the king marches in.  Then the king forces the knight to keep him out or else black gets a passer.  That's where the end starts...a passive knight.  Then the key to promoting pawns against a knight...make it a rook pawn!  Not  ... b4  axb4 axb4, but a4 and b4.  Black can stop the white passer.  White can't stop black's hard-to-reach one.

       

 

 

Nice one!

Right. So after 10...Be6!?, preventing the White king from accessing the f-pawns. If 11.f4 b4 12.axb4 axb4 13.Nxb4 Kxb4 14.f5 Bf7 and White's king can't access Black's pawns.

 

But if White realizes this he can abandon the sacrifice idea and in response to Be6!? play 11.Kd3! b4 12.axb4 axb4 13.Ne3! where White's king holds the queenside while White's knight holds the queenside.

 
So Black needs a better plan, 10...Bf7!! This prevents 11.Kf5 and 11.Kd3 due to a skewer tactic! 11.f4 Kc4 12.f5 b4 13.axb4 axb4 14.h4 Kc3 and it's all over!

likesforests points out some important tactics that were missed in the game. It appears that white would do better with 2. g4 rather than 2. Kg3, though I haven't checked all the consequences of delaying the king entering the center.

 

9. Kc5 and white can't prevent the creation of a passed pawn

True, but white can sac the knight for the pawn and go the the kingside similar to the game. 9. ... Kc5 10. Ke4 and if black tries immediately, 10. ... b4 11. axb4 axb4 12. Nxb4 Kxb4 13. Kf5 and takes on f6.

 

I think the real question is whether or not the black king can get to c3.

 

Crafty's play seems bizarre to me. I think a human can realize without calculating that the knight cannot hold the queenside on its own. So the long knight maneuver is just suicide, white has to bring the king over. Or am I wrong here?

Nice one likesforests

Trying to set a trap with 3...Ke8?! 4.Nxa7 Kd7 is an interesting idea, but it ultimately fails because White's a-pawn can aid in the knight's escape.


4...Bc4! 5.a3 Bd5! nets a pawn and the game. -/+.


9...Kc5 and White can't prevent the creation of a passed pawn =+.


9...Bf1? & 10...Bh3? & 11...Bf1? - Three poor moves in a row turn the game into a draw. Instead of playing Kc5 and focusing on the creation of a queenside passer, Black wastes time forcing White to advance his kingside pawns, which is what he should do anyway.

The side with the bishop certainly has an edge. I played out this position against Crafty to generate some semi-convincing winning lines: