Author: Simon Finn
Date: 10:48:57 10/29/01
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On October 28, 2001 at 09:52:19, Gareth McCaughan wrote: >Roy Eassa wrote: > >> There were several K+P positions during the game (or in the notes) that I >> consider unclear. Can anybody provide a clear view on any of these?: >... >> [D] 8/8/1k6/2pPpppp/2P5/5P2/4K1PP/8 w - - 0 42 > >I set Crafty looking at this for a good long time >on my machine (Athlon/1GHz, fairly modest amount of >hash). I find its analysis implausible. Some extracts >follow. > >24 145:52 1.75 1. Kf2 Kc7 2. g4 hxg4 3. fxg4 f4 4. > h4 gxh4 5. g5 h3 6. g6 e4 7. g7 e3+ > 8. Ke2 h2 9. g8=Q h1=Q 10. Qf7+ Kc8 > 11. Qxf4 Qc1 12. Qf8+ Kd7 13. Qf7+ > Kd8 14. Qf6+ Ke8 15. Qg6+ Ke7 16. Qe6+ > Kf8 17. Qd6+ Kf7 18. Qxc5 > >Surely the final position here is dead drawn. (Crafty >thinks so too when given that position for a few minutes. >Or indeed a few seconds.) > >26-> 1346:24 2.20 1. Kf1 Kc7 2. g4 hxg4 3. fxg4 fxg4 > 4. Ke2 Kd6 5. Ke3 Ke7 6. Ke4 Kf6 7. > d6 Ke6 8. d7 Kxd7 9. Kxe5 Ke7 10. Kd5 > Kf6 11. Kxc5 Ke5 12. Kb6 g3 13. hxg3 > g4 14. c5 Kd5 > >Surely 3...fxg4 is a dreadful move and 3...f4 is much >stronger. It certainly looks that way to me. > Perhaps Black is avoiding 3...f4 because of >lines like the one above where Crafty overestimates >White's chances in the two-queen position. The point of 1. Kf1! (as opposed to 1. Kf2) is that 7...e3 (in the first line above) isn't check, so White gains a precious tempo. Black can win the tempo back only by sacrificing 2 pawns: 1. Kf1 Kc7 2. g4 hxg4 3. fxg4 f4 4. h4 gxh4 5. g5 h3 6. g6 f3 7. Kg1 f2+ 8. Kxf2 e4 9. g7 e3+ 10. Kxe3 h2 11. g8Q h1Q In this Q+P endgame, I think White has good winning chances. >Now, I'm a patzer, and Crafty is supposed to be good >at K+P endings, so maybe I'm wrong about these... What I don't understand is why White doesn't play 1. Kf1 Kc7 2. Kg1 intending 3. g4, but with his king already optimally positioned for the line where Black plays f4. Perhaps Crafty considers this finesse unnecessary because the Q+P endgame after f4 is already "better" for White than the K+P endgame after fxg4? Or can Black refute 2. Kg1 Simon
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