No. This game is an easy forced win for white from the initial position, but he was obviously clueless of how to play this and blundered black a drawing opportunity... 5. Kg6?? And white loses his winning opportunity. But black gives it back after 7.Kg7?? because white now recaptures Kg5 and has the opposition in front of his pawn, which always guarantees promotion as long as it's not a rook pawn (and it isn't). All black had to do is shuffle his king between f7 and f6 until white captures pawn, and after Kg7 in response, black had the opposition and the game is a dead draw.

Both sides played one of the most basic pawn endgame positions in a very trashy manner and NEED to study some fundamental endgames... I hear Siman's Endgame Course is a solid book for chess players ranging from beginners to experts, so I would suggest giving that a shot if you are interested in learning how the endgame works. I personally find it to be the most fascinating part of the game to study, it is amazing how complex some positions can be conceptually with very little material left... But this endgame was a very simple one and both players need to drastically adjust their technique after this performance.

Pardon me for not actually explaining how this should have been finished though. White should play 5.Ke5 and now black in zugzwang, as he is forced to move back to the 8th rank, where he will be too late to both capture the e6 pawn and stop g-pawn (5...Ke8 6. Kf6 Kf8 7.Kg6 Ke7 8. Kxh6 Kxe6 9. Kxg5 and regardless of black's next move, white has the opposition and wins). The only other option is for him to play h5, and when white takes the pawn and both sides promote, white pawn queens at h8 just before black's pawn queens at g1. Now white can play Qh7+ and white has a mate in 3 (Qg7 Qxg7+ Ke8 Qf7+ Kd8 Qd7#).

Thanks for the thoughtful response. So I should have played it like this?...

 

Nice. You're a better player than me if you calculate lines that tight seven moves ahead in a blitz game with 20 seconds left on the clock.

How is this not the best way to win?

Black's king doesn't have to move 5...Kf7. The king can stay put on e8, which would then unfold the scenario GreenCastleBlock pointed out.

Good question, though.

@theant : 2...h5 turns the tables

<Congruity> he doesn't have to calculate anything with 20 seconds. He is simply familiar with the position and can play it out of his memory, even with 5 seconds if he's fast enough. 

Good points. Thanks. Definitely missed that minor detail, haha.

White's K has to keep an eye on the Kside breakthrough.  Your 2.Kd6 throws away the win:

Ya I was clearly mistaken in my analysis, pretty bad actually, the lines you show should be fairly easy to see and calculate, don't know what I was thinking.

I created a Youtube video discussing this end game example and featured a couple of your awesome, excellent comments as examples. Check it out!

https://youtu.be/nMnV4R5B62I

Enjoy!

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There is a trap that is not well known. In your video you say if he moves his king to h8 then i will go from left Kf7. And you end there. Unfortunately here is what could happen.

If you go to f7 , you can still win, but you have to go back with your king on g6.

I clicked on this because i saw the word trebuchet and wondered what a trebuchet would be in chess. WHY NO TREBUCHET!

 

There is almost a trebuchet in post #4 but not really.

 

Trebuchet is reciprocal zugzwang where one king is forced to move away from protecting his pawn, while the opposing king remains connected to the pawns and can then capture. Exactly as GreenCastleBlock has demonstrated in the example above.

See also:

https://www.chess.com/chessopedia/view/trebuchet

Very nice! Thanks for sharing.