My take on this might be bit unorthodox but I've long thought the whole opposition concept isn't really necessary. Sometimes I feel it serves more to confuse than clarify matters.
I think it should be possible to solve these positions with just the knowledge of key squares. The pawn in c3 has three key squares (b5-d5). Basically white wins if his king reaches one of these. Otherwise black holds.
You are right that white wins like in diagram 2. You are also correct that 1. Kd2?? in diagram 1 is a mistake that looses the win. However your analysis contains a hole.
Hi all
I am busy working through Silman's end game book and have just started learning the basics of "distant opposition". I have a question around this, just to try and clarify this concept for myself and to make sure I fully understand what is going on.
In the following position white loses the distant opposition because of a wrong move.
Here is the winning continuation for white because he is able to obtain distant opposition.
So now in this position I placed the pawn on b3, instead of c3, which enables me to hold distant opposition from move 1.
Are all of these statements that I made correct? Do I understand these concepts correctly? More examples would also be appreciated before I move on.
Thank you all