The Path To Victory When You're a Pawn Up - Calculation Part X

It's the end of the game.

Exchanges were made. Blows were traded.

When the dust finally settles, all that's left are the two kings and your extra pawn.

Your victory seems imminent.

But with some fancy maneuvering from your opponent, you can't get your pawn to promotion, and the game inevitably ends in a draw.

Immediately you rush to have the computer analyze your game and discover that if you had just made this one move, you would have won!

You vow never to make the same mistake. However, every time you play higher-rated opponents, the opportunity to win slips through your fingers.

If this sounds familiar, don't beat yourself up.

We've all been in the same position as you at one time or another.

Eventually, we each discover there are a few secrets to winning these positions.

Part of it is knowing the tools your opponent can use to force a draw, as we discussed in yesterday's blog:

• The Square of the Pawn
  
• Maintaining Opposition

The other part is knowing you have the same tools at your disposal.

The difference between winning or drawing in most king and single pawn endgames comes down to three main factors.

1) Preparation

2) Position

3) Tempo

Preparation
By taking the time to study now, you are already on the path to proper preparation. 

For that alone, you deserve to be commended.

The other part of preparation is practice.

I had a high school band instructor who told us every dark, chilly weekday morning at 6:00 AM, "People like to say practice makes perfect, but that's not true. By now, you all know this. Band! What makes perfect?"

In unison, we would respond, "Perfect practice makes perfect!"

He had us trained well.

We didn't win every competition we entered, but we won most of them.

The truth is perfect practice can't prepare you for every variable; but it's still the right mentality to have.

When it counts during competitions, you can't have a bass drummer (like me) trip and fall over in the middle of the field show.

The same is true in chess.

All it takes is one misstep, one piece not performing to perfection, like a king or pawn, can ruin the whole game.

Like in recent parts of this series on calculation, you'll have the opportunity to practice the techniques we go over without risking your rating.

But moving pieces through a puzzle until you get the moves right isn't enough.

Perfect practice requires you to go through the puzzle until the end before you ever consider touching a piece, let alone moving it.

That means you must either deeply understand the techniques and patterns you're using to shortcut a process, or you must calculate each possible line, your opponent's possible rebuttals, and your responses until you have eliminated everything but the best possible move.

There's a famous saying, "If you want to get the results that others don't, you have to do what others won't."

I promise, very few players practice perfectly.

If you want to get better faster, you can decide never to be one of those players ever again.

Alright, enough fluff. Let's get down to business!

Position

I won't go into detail on the square of the pawn because we covered it in the previous article.

But it's a technique that you can easily implement to determine if a lone pawn can make it to promotion before your opponent's king can reach it in time.

Here are two quick diagrams demonstrating the method.

If you would like a more detailed explanation of the square of the pawn technique and it's additional benefits before you continue further, here's the link to yesterday's article.

Sometimes, getting to a winning position means making strategic decisions in your middle games to avoid positions that lead to draws at the end of the game.

Let's say you get to choose which file (the lettered columns) you place your final pawn on and you'll only have your kings left.

Unless your king can prevent your opponent's king from blocking the promoting square, never choose to have a pawn left on the a or h files.

Here's why:

No matter what you do, if their king gets to the corner, it's a draw and your extra pawn is worthless.

But if their king is farther away, you can protect your pawn like this.

If your pawn is four squares away from the promotion square and you can get your king in front of the pawn, you have a winning position (provided it's not on the a or h file). You still have to play it correctly, of course, but it doesn't matter whose move it is.

If it's white to move, you win like this.

If it's black to move, then you win like this.

The key to winning in these positions is maintaining the opposition.

Maintaining the opposition is a term that describes how two kings face off against one another.

When the kings are lined up, covering the same three squares, neither of them can make forward progress.

One king must move to the side which allows the player with the opposition to move in the opposite direction and move forward.

When the kings are lined up but you would have to move to the side first, that's your cue to move your pawn.

Eventually, you'll get into a position where you can protect the promotion square and safely guide your pawn all the way to the end.

Let's say your pawn hasn't left it's starting square and it's not on the edge of the board.

As long as your king is far enough ahead, you will have a winning position because you can choose whether to move your pawn one square or two.

We'll just look at one example to show the technique.

In spots like these, using your pawn to "waste" tempos is crucial to maintain the opposition.

Which brings us to our next key topic:

Tempo

There are some positions that whichever side moves first loses the game or their potential to win (zugzwang).

This usually occurs in king pawn endgames where the pawn has fewer than four squares to promotion.

When white move first in this position it's a draw.

And when black moves first in the same position, white wins.

This position demonstrates why it was so important to have the pawn four squares away or your king needs to be well ahead of your pawn because whichever side moves first now loses.

When black moves first, they lose the game.

That's why tempo is so incredibly vital to the success or failure of king pawn endgames.

Conclusion

In the beginning I told you that preparation, position, and tempo were key elements to succeeding in king pawn endgames and I hope this article has effectively communicated how important they truly are.

As G.I. Joe famously said, "Now you know. And knowing is half the battle!"

The other half is putting your knowledge to the test.

As promised, now's your chance to practice the techniques we discussed.

But remember, practice doesn't make perfect.

What makes perfect?

Don't move until you see the lines all the way through to victory!

You can do this!

White to move, who wins?

Great job! That last one was especially tricky!

Isn't it wonderful to apply new skills or prove you have your fundamentals down pat?

Until next time, keep learning, keep improving, and, most of all, enjoy every moment!

Today's article is the tenth chapter of the series, Calculation - From Beginning to Endgame.

If you haven't read the other chapters and you want to catch up, you could start with chapter one, When to Ignore Opening Principles.

Or you can skip to a chapter best suited to your current needs by browsing through the rest of the blog.

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