the rule is that your pawn should never enter the 7/2 rank with check. from there its counting, you can reach it in 6 or 7 moves (without him taking, otherwise its +1 for both) and its easy to see that for every even number of your steps the black king is on the wrong square. what i want to say with that is you can make 'long and complicated' calculations easier most of the time if you see the pattern.
Endgames and waiting moves
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Hello All -
Does any one have a good resource (e.g., book, video, article) for me to learn rules on the application of waiting moves in endgames? Here is an example: 3. a4 would be a blunder because it leads to a draw. The winning move is 3. a3, a waiting move. This ensures that the Black king is on the correct square for White to deliver checkmate.
Of course, it is easy to see once it is played. I need to learn when to apply these sort of waiting moves. Does it involve counting moves. Is there a handy rule, like the "Pawn Square Rule" that I could learn?
Many thanks!