White should win easily although not immediately afaics. Btw, might be better with coordinates since white is playing down the board, or flipped since the question is really 'can white win'.
Is this position a forced draw?
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I haven't tried any specific lines, but I'm sure white wins. You just can't hold this position as black.
Black's king can't do anything, and black's rook alone has too many tasks to do. It has to: 1) stay on the 4th rank (to restrict white's king), 2) maintain access to the 2nd rank (to prevent Kc2), and 3) protect the c6 pawn.
Here's a possible plan for white: attack the c6 pawn--if black plays Rh6 then white brings the king into play with Kd4, if black plays Rc4 then white plays Kc2 with mating threats. That rook has too many things to take care of.
White wins immediately with f7 and f8=Q+. Isn't that obvious? :P
On a more serious note, white easily wins because of black's bad king position - though I suspect white would win wherever you'd reposition the black king on the board.
The winning line could be something like this: 1. Qc1+ Kb3/a2 2. Qc2+ Ka3 3. Qf2! winning a tempo by attacking the black rook (else black would've prevented Kc2 with a king move of his own) followed by 4. Kc2, and then white mates with either Qg1 swinging over to b1 and/or a1, or if that isn't possible with e4 and Qa7#.
Just wondering, how would white attack the c6 pawn? I see the queen check and then dropping down to attack it but, can't the rook just move to c4 to guard it? Without the queen in position to potentially mate, the king will have moved over to prevent the white king from penetrating to c2. All feedback helps, I really need to improve my play in endgame type positions.
NesimTR wrote:
Just wondering, how would white attack the c6 pawn? I see the queen check and then dropping down to attack it but, can't the rook just move to c4 to guard it? Without the queen in position to potentially mate, the king will have moved over to prevent the white king from penetrating to c2. All feedback helps, I really need to improve my play in endgame type positions.
As soon as your rook moves to c4, white immediately plays Kc2--you won't have time to move your own king to prevent him from playing Kc2. We could try out a line here: let's say I'm white and I play Qf1, with a primitive intention to go to f6 and attack your pawn. What would you do? Here are my pre-moves:
1) if Ka2, then Qf2+ (forking king and rook)
2) if Kb3, then Qf4 (preventing your Rc4 idea)
3) if Rc4, then Kc2 (no time for black to reposition king)
4) if Rh6, then Kd4
Okay, so I was playing a game and it reached this position. White repeated the position three times and the result was a draw. I was wondering how white should have played it and what the best result would've been. I think I'm unable to look clearly at the position because I was involved, and I don't really see a way for white to make progress. Any assistance will be appreciated!