King and pawn challenge

What would you play as Black here, and why?

I would start with KF7. Black a strong e pawn that will keep whites king tied up. White looks like a passer on the king side. This coming from a player who would definitely keep rooks on the board to avoid a pawn ending?

I would say ...b6.  It freezes whites c-pawn. 

I think it's a draw. Neither side seems to be able to bring his king into the action since black has a protected passed pawn while white can create a passed pawn with g4 if the black king goes too far away.

Black has to keep in mind of possible g4 moves, so the king can't go too far away. 1.. c5 or b6 or Kf7 is my choices.

White's king is more active than black king. I would start with Kf7.

Why not kg7? g6 and g5 are blocked. There's nothing for the king over there. The only problem is, white controls the game right now. He can choose when to play g4.

(I'm going to take a moment here and assume the board is not upsidedown. Moving on)

Kf7 means that white's pawn break is scary... but what after kg7? kingside position is locked until white unlocks it and his king will simply move over to the queenside and start eating pawns. Meaningwhile you will either zugzwang himself or keep his king uselessly out of the action.

Without deep calculation I would say block has a chance. A good endgame idea is to look at each king's gateway. If white wants to get to the other side he has to go all the way to b4 while the black king gets through on e4. So black king can get to the other side faster. Keep in mind that the h pawn's square of queen goes on the way to the d file, so the black king can be quite distant and still save it!

I am not good with endgames, and can't figure out what exactly will happen.. but my move would be Kf7.

EDIT: c5 lets the white king beat you to e5. I think that would be a lost position!

I think 1. ...c5 is correct followed by activating the king. Otherwise white will play c5 himself and pick up a4 with the king (remaining close enough to the black e pawn to stop it promoting).

Maybe I'm missing something though.

I think 2: c5 is fine for black.

Edit: If black plays that way, H pawn will queen! Black will have to find another way.

b6 at the end of your line is what i think you are missing, white must babysit the e pawn too.

b6 then Kc6. Black is done.

EDIT: I see, e pawn promotion is threatened. I assumed white could promote first. I'll see if there are other issues. The important thing is to analyze, not to analyze correctly!

I think if ...b6 then g4. If black's king retreats to stop the promotion then white king can capture the e and f pawns.

EDIT: I've been doing lots of analysis, I think black wins after c5. I'm seeing a lol of zugzwang positions for white where he has to move the b pawn forward.

I feel really bad that you spent all that time making that beautiful illustration and I already figured it out ;|

White has another idea after 1... c5. Moving the K to c3, then b3, pawn exchange, moving K to d5. But it's draw as a3,a4 doesn't enable a5.

I played 1...c5 and we agreed a draw.

It would have been surprisingly easy to fall for 1...Kf7? 2. c5 and White wins.

The protected passed pawn looks like it should give Black an advantage, but it doesn't. The White king can wander as far as the a file, while the Black king can't go past the c file (due to the g4 break).

I would have gone for Kg7 . It protects a pawn chain , and blocks whites G pawn from becoming a queen. The g pawn is the only one that can promote so blocking it would help. Also after the string of moves you showed in the 2nd message , I would do the promotion of the e pawn to a queen to be able to attack whites peices and defend mine . Also if I got right in front of the king at the end with the protection of the king I would mate him. There is a way for black to win

what would you do as white in this position