Can white win?

Sort:
Hexy

Found myself in this position after getting brutalized in a game previous. The question then is, can white win? I'm just not seeing it...

corum

I don't think there is a straight forward forced win for white. White could perhaps win in the long run but to be honest I think I prefer black's position. The central pawn mass could be dangerous in the long run.

Hexy

Yeah, my friend and I tried several times and the pawns made it hard to push for mate. :-(

Just hoping someone might see something we didnt.

Nilesh021

White could always win, but not agains a decent player. This position calls is bad for white because of the isolated pawns

JoishiBoido

In that specific position, I think the bishop attacking white squares is the calling factor.  If the bishop were attacking black squares, white might have a stronger position.  The knight and d pawn both being on black squares make any type of offense beyond the pawns pretty difficult.

Dmasta

A battery on the open F file is your best hope (or was lol) in my opinion.  The C, D, and E pawns are extremely problematic.  You would have to come up with a mating combination very fast.  I like the pawn on g6, it allows for a simple back-rank mate -- were it not for the rook.  Though, if you managed to create a battery on that file (with the Queen first) a mating combination such as: 1. Bxc6 (to move his queen away) Qxc6 2. Qf7+ Kh8 3. Qf8+ Rxf8 4. Rxf8#

Should black not take the bishop you win a rook and the mating possibility still stand if black chooses to capture you bishop following 2. Bxa8. 

If you had managed to do that then you would have yourself a great game.  It'd be very hard and require horrible play by black (though being up material causes that to happen a lot lol).

Sorry if this was too much speculation.

xMenace

I'm looking at 1 Rf7 Qc8 2 Qf2 Qe8 3 Bc6 Qc6 4 Rg7+. 1 ... Rf8 stops this progression by White, and 2 Rf8 Kf8 3 Qf2+ Qe8 4 Bc6 Qc6 5 Qf7+ Kd8 6 Qg7 and it looks difficult to queen the pawn.

1 Rf7 Rf8 2 Rf8 Kf8 3 Qh4 Qe7 4 Qf4+ Ke8 5 Bc6+ at least wins a pawn back, but  3 ... Qc7 stops this though.

No, I don't see anything forced.