en.lichess.org/4tGlPYfrXLkVCan someone create, or direct me to a study that addresses the KP v K situation I got myself into at the end of this blitz game? Not the part where I blunder pushing my passed pawn...after that. When I have just my king and he's pushing the pawn on me. I need more work on these kind of endgames with some annotation included. I guess I can also start doing specialized endgame sets on CT.
Thanks!
When he is threatening to move his king in front of his own pawn, prevent it with your king (So dont play 53...Kg8 but 53...Kf7!). Otherwise simply stay on the file of the pawn, as near as possible to the pawn. That draws. Check it with
http://www.shredderchess.com/online-chess/online-databases/endgame-database.html.
@SelfmateMan Thank you very much. This is exactly the kind of help I was looking for on this. I was also unaware of shredder's online endgame database. Thank you again for pointing me in the right direction.
What you talk about is called the "Opposition rule". There are many books covering it.
It was also explained using the key squares concept - dont let the King with the +pawn enter the three key squares two rows before the pawn. Eg. if the pawn is on e4, the key squares are e6, d6, f6.
An exception is when the pawn is on the fifth rank and not an a- or h-pawn and the own king is in front of him. Eg. white: pawn e5 King e6, black: King e8. Here opposition/protection of keysquares wont help black any more, because after 1.Kd6 Kd8 2.e6 Ke8 3.e7 black has no Ke9.
(this position also occured in your game after 54.Kg6, but your opponent misplayed it, 55.Kh7! is the win (thats why it mustnt be an h-pawn) and 56.g6? throws the win away. He was lucky that you later played 62...Kf8?, 62...Ke8! would have been the draw instead).
Key squares and opposition are two different explanations for the same thing. In some positions it is simpler to work with the opposition, in others it is simpler to work with key squares.
For example 8/8/1p6/p1p5/P1P5/1P5k/3K4/8 b - - 0 0 is best explained with key squares: when the black king is on b8 or d8 then white wins if he can enter (not if he is already on) the key squares d6 or b6 (which, when bk is on d8, in case of the square d6 is the opposition and in case of b6 is the diagonal opposition). The key square for c7 is c5 (it wouldnt be if pawns a5/a6 were missing). Therefore the key square for c8 is d5. Therefore white has to triangle so that it is blacks move: 1.Kc4 Kb8 2. Kd4 Kc8 3.Kd5 (or 1.Kd4 Kb8 2.Kc4 Kc8 3.Kd5) and wins.
In other examples opposition is a simpler rule of thumb. Eg in 8/8/1p6/p1p5/P1P5/1P4k1/2K5/8 b - - 0 1 black wins with 1...Kg2 - distant opposition. Searching for Key squares here is too difficult.
But opposition (and probably also key squares) can be misleading. For example if both kings are moved one column to the right in the previous example - 8/8/1p6/p1p5/P1P5/1P5k/3K4/8 b - - 0 1 then 1..Kh2 does not win, it loses!
(I accidently entered that position first and wondered why stockfish didnt find the 'winning' move 1...Kh2 and instead gave 1...Kg4 as draw). So handle with care. Always check by calculating lines ;-)
I can recommend the book "Silman's complete endgame course" by IM Jeremy Silman. It covers many endings common in practical play as well as the "Opposition rule"
Why does stockfish evaluate this position to 0?
sv.lichess.org/4tGlPYfr#110With Kg6 white has opposition and will win.
@thetasquared Thanks for the YouTube link! Yes, that is quite helpful.
np - that's one of the only endgame things I've "mastered" ... kind of? lol
