Carlsen Tari endgame

You might want to post the position where you think it is a draw

Here's the final position

Tari (Black) to play. The game ended 1-0.

The tablebases say that White has a win here:

Carlsen-Tari final position

Also just looking at the position White can force Black away from one of his pawns and capture it by using the opposition of the Kings.

It would go something like this:

Hi.

All pawns are blocked. The black pawn on f4 has three critical squares: e4, d4 and c4. If the white king reaches any of those three squares, then the pawn on f4 is lost (I am assuming the black king does not reach the critical squares of the white f3 pawn before, but in this case it is quite clear).

White can play Kc4 in the next move, there is no way to prevent it. So, the black pawn on f4 is lost. In this particular position, the black king has no chance of counterattacking any white pawn, so the position is just lost for Black.

These kind of critical squares is very well explained in the book "Chess endings: essential knowledge" by Averbakh.

Greetings.

Thanks 😊

Btw, this is not an endgame requiring superhuman skills. You ought to win this before you hit the 1800 rating mark.

I'

I'm a mere 1409 at time of writing, certainly not superhuman, merely human.

If you've read Dvoretsky's Engame Manual, then I would explain this ending using his concept of corresponding squares. In simple terms, white has more squares to avoid zugswang than black, so he can force a concession, which in this case, is fatal.

It's commonly referred to as shouldering. In that ending shown, black will eventually be forced to give up protection of the pawns as the white king approaches them. He'll end up in zugzwang... losing in the process.

Aeroplanes and minefields lesson features this position