This is a position from two of the top players in a round of a chess 960 tournament I'm in. Black resigned: after all, white will surely gobble up the pawns with the king and then promote.... (I guess you need to move to the final position).
It's a draw per the tablebase.
Black plays bxc then tries to swing his king to a8. White can only prevent it by getting his own king trapped and stalemated there. That's what I calculate at least. - Bill
White only gets the outside passer after all the trades. Black gets back in time to save the draw. Very weird.
Resigning is insane in this position, regardless of the objective evaluation. Even if it was winning for white (which it isn't), there's no harm in making a few moves just to make sure.
Most players resign too early, because that's what they see from the top players. By the way, the top players also resign too early. Who was it who resigned in a theoretically drawn position a few years ago? I think it was Sam Shankland.
Yes, Giri - Shankland, Tata Steel 2019.
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1943768
First, I am not a good player.
All I did was count moves. In the starting position, black has 8 moves to get the king to the queening square. White has 9 moves to queen the pawn.
That tells me black has a chance to get there first regardless of how it actually plays out. Since it's a rook pawn white cannot remove the black king from the corner.
If white chooses to keep the black king out of the corner by taking the opposition, he doesn't have time to capture the blockading black pawn on the rook file. It's a draw by repetition of king moves.
i think black can play b5
You should play it out on a board, moving pieces. You'll see it loses - and how and why- and figure out how to draw as black and win as white if black errs. It is highly likely knowing this will save or even win a game for you in the future.
It's a draw. Either Black gets to b8 as White goes back to pick off the a-pawn, or if Whiye moves Ka7 to squeeze the black king out, Black plays Kf7 and traps the white king on the side of the board
No, he does not need to read Silman.
Being able to count up to five is enough to see that the ending is a draw.
First, I am not a good player.
All I did was count moves. In the starting position, black has 8 moves to get the king to the queening square. White has 9 moves to queen the pawn.
That tells me black has a chance to get there first regardless of how it actually plays out. Since it's a rook pawn white cannot remove the black king from the corner.
If white chooses to keep the black king out of the corner by taking the opposition, he doesn't have time to capture the blockading black pawn on the rook file. It's a draw by repetition of king moves.
You don't need to predict the moves till the king reaches the queening square. It's enough to see if the king can reach c8, which is in just five moves. There is one line in which the king reaches c8 and it's a draw, and another one where white omits taking the c6 pawn and can stop your kingt reaching c8, but the both pawns promote at the same move.
It's really easy to calculate, because there are no alternative moves to take into account.
This is a position from two of the top players in a round of a chess 960 tournament I'm in. Black resigned: after all, white will surely gobble up the pawns with the king and then promote.... (I guess you need to move to the final position).