Can you win this?

I found this position while studying a game of Karpov's. It's a knight and 2 versus 3, and his opponent (Jan Timman) resigned here. I analyzed the position, knew it must be winning if a GM resigned, but wondered if a club player would be able to win this position OTB. I played it against my engine, and - lo and behold - that damnable fish held a draw!

What do the people of chess land think of this position? Would the average B player be able to win? A player? Master? If you give black a move - let's say a4 - how do you go about building a plan and converting this ending?

This position is easily won by white. Click on the analysis board and go to continue vs computer. Keep the computer in level 10 and click on the hint button after the computers move. The hint move will show the best move. So even if the computer plays the best moves you can win with the hint moves because this position is already won

When you say "easily", how easily. Could you do it against Magnus Carlsen with 5 minutes on the clock?

I tried again - drew again

??? its supposed to be done in a real game (otb) not with computer suggestions ... can u do it without?

i think that the horse can stop 2 pawns(e5-c4-a3 blocking a pawn and aiming at b1 in case of promotion).

right side its easy i think 2 pawns vs 1.

sorry, i dont see where is a draw

...............................so no suggestions on evaluating etc? We're just going to dunk on Alison for being terrible? Everybody knows how to do this, and I'm the only sucker who gets swindled?

@TheTaleOfWob i think so ... let me try again ...

ok, i think it win Nc4 too, same idea, horse block a pawn (a or b pawn depending on black move).

i think is not hard to see that the only chance to avoid black promotion is that horse, the king is too slow. 1200+ can find the idea.

White knight needs to be able to go the the b file high enough to blockade the b pawn and be ready to win the a pawn once it advances. So I play Nc6. Once you’re on b4 with the knight the pawns can’t get past b5 and a3.

Then it’s just a pawn endgame, except you have free tempo whenever to get opposition.

If she wanted engine lines I’m sure she could get them herself. She wants the approach.

The problem is that practicing against an engine it plays silly moves rather than practical defence.

https://lichess.org/ZoZ5mmPp

Although I did lose one trying to push the pawn too fast.

No she said she drew with the engine, not that the engine called it a draw.

The engine didn't say it was a draw. I wasn't using the eval because I wanted to learn how to play the position rather than just looking up the answer (I looked later and it gives +50 or something).

Three attempts...didn't make it 'til the third. 

i didnt noticed that was black to move!

on that i posted is white to move (board not turned up-down, not sure if thats the right word).

 I <3 you, Wormy! You've been giving me help for a long time (as well as Scott!). I just got salty because I felt like people were implying I'm a patzer....which , I suppose, is true. But I try REALLY hard!!

Black is winning here, you made the pawns too far down the board.

too far are that pawns too ...

I played with the pawn placement a little bit: With BLACK TO MOVE, it's a win for white if the a pawn is on the 5th-8th, but it's a win for black when the a pawn gets to the fourth. The b pawn actually doesn't matter, I don't think 

BLACK IS WINNING

WHITE IS WINNING

Yes, A pawn. The knight cant cover a1 in time.

But i dont understand why u have black to move but board is for white side ... this confuse me.

White to move. I'll not tell who win

I should have marked it. The reason it was posted that way is that it was black's (Timman's) turn when the game finished, so what I gave was the final position in Karpov - Timman 1988 with black to move (rather than putting a4 on the board and making it white's turn - which is more logical)