Endgames: The Square of the Pawn

Introduction

Pawn endgames. How are they useful? How are they dangerous? How are they full of tactics?      Well, lets find out!

The Square of the Pawn

Well lets start off with a losing position for white. Or is it really losing? Lets figure out...

At first, you might want to resign as white in this position, but there is a way that white can actually draw this game. Lets start off seeing if we can easily draw. If whites king just goes after the pawn, the pawn is just going to flee, and promote in the end. And the only reason that black can actually do that, is because white's king is behind the pawn. Since the pawn moves one square and the king moves one square, white won't catch up to the pawn.

So lets try a different take. Forcing moves. Though it may seem dumb at first, the only forcing moves we have are, going after the pawn- which failed; or the threat of promoting. So lets try that. 

So straight up promoting the pawn won't work. Why is that? 

The square of the pawn is a concept that tells you whether you can actually catch up to a pawn or not. Here is a little diagram. The square of the pawn is shown in the diagram.

First, draw an arrow in the direction the pawn is going, except diagonally, and make sure it reaches the promotion rank (shown in the diagram) then make an arrow from the diagonal arrow to the row in the pawn is in. Then, start again from the diagonal arrow and go to the column the pawn is in. Then connect the arrow to the pawn. 

If the king is able to continuously enter the square of the pawn. The king can stop the pawn from promoting. Which is actually the same reason our king wasn't able to stop the pawn. The white king couldn't enter the square of the pawn continuously.

So now, we have to find a way to enter the square of the pawn continuously, and its ok if black takes our pawn, because we couldn't win either way, we are aiming for a draw. But what we first need to do as white is make sure our king is not behind the pawn. It needs to be leveled with the pawn, because only then will it be able to continuously enter the square of the pawn. And the only way to do that? Forcing Moves.

So lets go back to the threat of promoting, but this time I have a piece of information we didn't have before. 

Do not move a pawn in a losing endgame. Just don't

Right, so now lets only move our king with the threat of promotion.

Did you notice that the king was in-line with the pawn? It was not behind the pawn after it moved- it was leveled perfectly with the pawn. I apologize if this is not the best way to introduce you to the square of the pawn, as this is a fairly complex tactic. But hopefully you understood, so see you later!

-rk_killermac