Three Pawns (Two Connected) v Knight: Cunning Plans

Technical questions regarding Openings, Middlegames, Endings etc.
Post Reply
IanCalvert
Posts: 232
Joined: Sun Jul 05, 2015 4:59 pm

Three Pawns (Two Connected) v Knight: Cunning Plans

Post by IanCalvert » Wed Oct 18, 2017 4:31 pm

Fine in "Basic Chess Endings" , 1941, says ; "Where the three pawns are disconnected (two connected) it requires little argument to show that the Knight cannot hold them back."

Averbakh & Chekhover , 1983, include an example from Palma de Mallorca 1972 where the knight holds.

Yesterday in a league game, in spite of my tigerish efforts, I failed to win against Steven Walsh from the following position:

W Kg1 , N b6 B Kd4 P f5 e6 h7 with Black to move.

Fritz says 0.00 so i assume this is drawn but any thoughts or cunning plans would be welcome.

User avatar
Christopher Kreuzer
Posts: 8806
Joined: Fri Aug 06, 2010 2:34 am
Location: London

Re: Three Pawns (Two Connected) v Knight: Cunning Plans

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Wed Oct 18, 2017 4:45 pm

IanCalvert wrote:Fine in "Basic Chess Endings" , 1941, says ; "Where the three pawns are disconnected (two connected) it requires little argument to show that the Knight cannot hold them back."

Averbakh & Chekhover , 1983, include an example from Palma de Mallorca 1972 where the knight holds.

Yesterday in a league game, in spite of my tigerish efforts, I failed to win against Steven Walsh from the following position:

W Kg1 , N b6 B Kd4 P f5 e6 h7 with Black to move.

Fritz says 0.00 so i assume this is drawn but any thoughts or cunning plans would be welcome.


Black to move


Roger de Coverly
Posts: 21301
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 2:51 pm

Re: Three Pawns (Two Connected) v Knight: Cunning Plans

Post by Roger de Coverly » Wed Oct 18, 2017 4:55 pm

IanCalvert wrote: W Kg1 , N b6 B Kd4 P f5 e6 h7 with Black to move.


It's a six man ending, so it can be looked up in the tablebases.
http://www.shredderchess.com/online-che ... abase.html

A sample line

1. .. Ke4 2. Kf1 Kf3 3. Nc4 f4 4. Nb6 e5 5. Nc4 e4 6. Nd2 (only move) Ke3 7. Ke1 (only move) h5 8. Nf1 (only move) Kd3 9. Nh2 (only move) h4 etc.

The tablebase would tell you whether White and then Black got it wrong at any stage.

I also checked the start position but with d and e pawns - still drawn. With c and d pawns, the pawns win. So Fine's note has to be qualified that the distance between the pawns also matters.

IanCalvert
Posts: 232
Joined: Sun Jul 05, 2015 4:59 pm

Re: Three Pawns (Two Connected) v Knight: Cunning Plans

Post by IanCalvert » Wed Oct 18, 2017 7:22 pm

Thanks to all.

Roger's suggestion for finding errors ,using the tablebase, was very useful.

The game went on for another 20 moves. Steven may have understood the ending better than me but i still had (just) one opportunity to win!

Post Reply