it would Change, the bishop would exchanged for d pawn and white king walk to the victory
The Process of Decision Making in Chess Volume 2: Practice positions and solutions. Position 10.7
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Not sure it would change much. The pawns are keeping white's king from moving to the other side of the board and trading bishop for the A pawn, (the only one that it can attack after g pawn moves) so it would definitely depend on white to move or black to move, I think lol.
First the white king would move to e2, then take the d4 pawn with the bishop. The black king would have to take back on d4, then white plays Kd2, taking the opposition. The game could continue … Kd5, Ke3 (Kc3 is a mirror) Ke5, d4 Kd5, Kd3 Kd6, Ke4 Ke6. Now since this d-pawn cannot promote, white switches and plays Kf4 Kd5, Kxg4 Kxd4, Kf5 Kd5, g4 Kd6, Kf6 Kd7, Kf7 and the g-pawn walks to queen.
If white chose for the c-side at Kc4 (mirror of Ke4) white would next play Kb4 and go for the a-pawn. Since the white king can hold black from the c-line with Kb5 (mirror of Kf5) the a-pawn can promote.
Ahh, I think I follow you. It took me a bit to explore these moves but it's amazing how such a simple position can have so many different variations to finish the game. I was thinking that after white takes the d4 pawn that black could still force the draw and the assessment wouldn't change. Thanks for sharing your analysis, I appreciate it!
Rxd3 is the play because after cxd3-g4 and the white king can not pass and the bishop can not capture the pawns of g4 and a4 are in white squares and the pawns of e5 and d4 will be protected by the black king is safe tables.
Good tactics, thanks.
Solve the challenge below:
Diagram 10.7.1- black’s rook is trapped, and the endgame after Bxe3 …dxe3, Kxe3 doesn’t offer any survival chances for black playing a pawn down in this king and pawns endgame. Observing the pawn structure closely, black comes up with an idea: if he could just force the enemy king to stay in his camp, and not cross the third rank, there is no progress to be made for white. So, …Rxd3! and after the recapture we reach the following position:
Diagram 10.7.2- a piece for a pawn should be enough to win, right? Not in this case! …g4! and there is no way white’s king can ever advance beyond the second rank. Therefore, no progress can be made, and the position is another salvaged practical draw.
In this example, by making a careful observation regarding the pawn structure, we managed to save a losing endgame.
Challenge: would the assessment of the position (draw) change if black had no e5 pawn?