White to move and win (IV)

White to move and win

Composed by Janis Betins (also known as Johann Behting, Latvia)

Published in Rigaer Tageblatt 1894

Not easy. White needs a trick or three. A beauty!

Behting recently got me with a super surprise move but it's not going to happen again!

That's correct but not sufficient. You need to state how it runs exactly since the 1st move is just one of the tricks.

I admit, I totally miss this trick. White plays anything than c5 and then it's a draw because both players have connected passed pawns? I don't see how the whie king can ever run over and help before the black d pawnq ueens. So unlesss there is some trick after allowing black to queen with check, I don't see how it's possible for white to win. I guess that's why it's a difficult composiiton.

EDIT: Hold on, I think I get it. White has a lot more options than black because of how far advanced his pawns are. I think white can put black in zugzwang...

EDIT 2: I found the solution! Nifty.

After one notices the corresponding squares at e4 and c5, I'm not sure what the tricks are that have been mentioned.

It is not clear on which square the wK must enter the fifth line. The correct one is less obvious than the others and does have a special reason.

Isn't d5 the obvious square, so a king move can be answered with Kc4?

d5 is the wrong square! Did you mean c5?

Ah, you meant the intermediate crossing (which is unnecessary since Kd3 works as well). I meant the definitive crossing for which e5 is the most natural candidate.

The point I try to make is that this problem looks like a left/right balancing type, so it is kind of natural to look for an entry point in the middle. It just doesn't turn out to be that way!

I don't know what is meant by "unnecessary intermediate crossing". Did I overlook a faster win?

White wins by capturing pawn c5. He can do that after playing Ke4-d5-c4 or after Ke4-d3-c4. Black has no options to change his king tempo meanwhile so he must await his fate. I hope we are discussing the same solution

I think whole idea is to force black to play c5 and post white king on e6 when black king goes to e8. Simple 1.Ke4 c5 2.Kd3 Ke8 3.Kc4 Kf7 fails. So lose a tempo by 1.Kf3 Ke8 ( same position will come with 1...c5 ) 2.Ke4 c5 3.Kd3 Kf7 4.Kc4 Ke8 5.Kd5 Kf7 6.Kd6 and promotes with check if 5...d3 6.Ke6 followed by f7 wins.

That's one of the tricks and you fell for it. After 5. .. Kd7! you have made no progress.

By the way, black should start his defense with 1. ... c6 to await white's reaction. If correct (2.Kf4) play resumes in the main line with 2. ... c5 3. Ke4.

The solution I had in mind is 1.Kf3 c6 2.Kf4 c5 3.Ke4 Ke8 4.Kd5 Kd7 5.Kc4 Ke8 6.Kxc5. Since 4.Kd3 and 4.Kd5 work the same, I don't see why one of them would be considered "unnecessary".

Not "unnecessary" as such but in relation to the query I entered regarding the definitive move forward of the white king. In the end the king must enter the 5th line in order to progress and the question was on which square (c5,d5,e5,f5).  'c5' is the only 5th line square that must be "necessarily" visited to win the endgame. The 'd5' entrance you chose was "intermediate" and "unnecessary" only in that light. It's the nature of a 'dual' that neither path is necessary.

From the remarks of other solvers you can see they have no real clue to the issues relating to the 5th line entrance. I first fell for e5 as the entrance square before I realized that even then ..Kd7 was a viable defense. Here are the tricks to see for the attack and the defense.