[Event "Chess @ Noon - Challengers (500 - 800 R"] [Site "?"] [Date "2020.08.22"] [Round "4.2"] [White "Lambert, Cooper"] [Black "Shah, Neil"] [Result "0-1"] [WhiteElo "767"] [BlackElo "760"] [FEN "8/5ppk/7p/5K1P/5P2/8/8/8 b - - 0 49"] {As Black, what would you play here, and would you be expecting to win, lose, or draw? The game should end in a draw, though it is Black who should be trying to win as they have an extra pawn. White's king is in a good position and White can force the trade os pawns which will lead to a draw.} 1...g6+ {Neil makes a passed pawn} (1...Kg8 {Trying to bring the king to the centre is another strategy Black could try.} 2.Ke5 Kf8 3.f5 {This now makes it very difficult for Black to ever play ..g6} Ke7 4.f6+ gxf6+ 5.Kf5 Kf8 6.Kxf6 Kg8 7.Ke5 Kg7 8.Kf5 {Black's king is stuck in the corner and can't get out unless White makes a mistake with their king.}) 2.Kf6? {White might have thought there was still a chance to win the game, but when we're material down, we should be thinking about saving a draw!} (2.hxg6+ {When behind, trade pawns.} fxg6+ 3.Kf6 {In the endgame we need to attack with our king} h5 (3...g5 4.fxg5 h5 {loses, as White's king helps his pawn to promote} 5.Kf7 {_MARK:g5->g6!,g6->g7!,g7->g8!_}) 4.Kg5 {A king has two jobs in the endgame, help it's own pawns to promote, and stop the enemy pawns promoting.} Kg7 5.f5 {This forces a final exchange which will lead to a draw} gxf5 6.Kxf5 Kh6 {Although White can't win Black's pawn, Black can't force the pawn through unless White makes a mistake. The important thing to remember is that a defending king wants to be in front of an enemy pawn to stop it promoting.} 7.Kf4 Kg6 8.Kg3 Kg5 9.Kh3 h4 10.Kh2 Kg4 11.Kg2 h3+ 12.Kh2 Kh4 13.Kh1 Kg3 14.Kg1 h2+ 15.Kh1 Kh3 {Stalemate!}) 2...gxh5 {One trick we use is to count how many moves it takes to get a queen vs how many moves our opponent will take when we're in a "pawn race". It is easy to see Black takes four moves from here. White's pawn takes 4 moves, but White first needs to take Black's f-pawn, and move the king out of the way of their own f-pawn, so that will be six moves.} 3.Kxf7 h4 4.f5 h3 5.f6 h2 {If White's king wouldn't be in the way, both sides would promote at the same time} 6.Ke7 h1=Q 7.f7 Qb7+ 8.Kf8 {A good rule is to NOT put your king in front of your promoting pawn.} Qxf7+ {Neil Sacrifices his queen to stop his opponent ever getting a queen, and shows Neil's safety first play. There was a quicker way to win} (8...Kg6 9.Ke8 (9.Kg8 Qxf7+ 10.Kh8 Qh7# (10...Qf8#) (10...Qe8#)) 9...Qxf7+ 10.Kd8 Qb7 {Black's queen forces White's king back towards the checkmate square} 11.Ke8 Qc7 12.Kf8 Qf7# (12...Qd8#)) 9.Kxf7 h5 {and Neil promoted this pawn and checkmated with king and queen vs king!} 0-1