Pawn Endgame: Opposing Majorities

I was looking at some drills, and in the end game section i tried one titled  "Pawn Endgame: Opposing Majorities". In the description it says :

"We know the queen is more powerful than king, but did you know the queenside usually beats the kingside?! The queenside majority is often an advantage because it is more likely to create an outside passed pawn. Despite this, White is still a bit better because of the active king, but you will have to make good use of your own kingside majority here to maintain the advantage. "

I tried to solve it many times and i couldn't win. Since it says "maintain the advantage"" in the description, i assume one is supposed to win it.
Can somebody tell if it is indeed a win for white? here is the starting position

not bad

Black's Q-side majority compensates for White's active King.  It is a draw.  Having said that, there are plenty of opportunities to go wrong.  The trick is to know when to shuffle your king and not overextend.  Try these three set-ups with your first few moves:  g4-f4-h4 / b4-b5-e5+-g4 / b4-a4-f3-g3-h3.  Good luck!

Hey Guys!

I  also came across this Drill and after several attempts I am stuck. I tried to understand the endgame by simply using the "hints" of the engine. But only playing engine moves leads to a win for black?! Can anyone explain this?

And additionally, can anyone make a suggestion on a good "workbook" on these types of practical pawn endgames? Or mention a few pawn endgames (beyond one pawn and king vs king) a wannabe improving player needs to know. Or is the list of pawn endgames in the drills section here on chess.com already "sufficient"?

Any help is appreciated 😀

Here are two possible solutions I played out with the drill.  In both cases black plays 2 ... Kd7 which I think is a mistake. It makes blacks king less active. I also played it with 2 ... Ke6 and was not able to get a winning position for white. That doesn't mean there isn't one. 

In both games white pushes the king side while creating a fortress against blacks king. Then white takes advantage of the passed pawn to win on the queen side.

g4 leads to nothing but draw. I suggest trying b4 - this wins.

I'm also terribly stuck on this one. It would be great if Chess.com gave us a bit more info to work with.

Has been a long time since I last wrote here and asked about this endgame drill. First of all thanks for the replys and example games!

Secondly I have to say that in December 2019 (time of my last post here) I actually thought that white can force a win here and so I only played against the highest computer level So now I reduced the level and actually got a win against computer level 14 and I kind of think that I "learned" something. King Invasion is the most important goal here and to my limited understanding the key idea to follow when thinking about moves. (At least this worked out until level 14 )

(It would be great if anybody could tell whether this endgame is actally a forced win also on maximum engine strength?!)

This position does not have a forced engine solution.  Us humans can still debate it.  Having said that all endgames with 7 pieces or less have been solved here https://syzygy-tables.info/.   After reviewing my analysis here this position seems to be a classic case of "keeping the draw" in hand.  You can only defeat yourself in this position, not force a win.

Every solution posted here doesn't match any of the moves the computer makes. Why is chess.com's computer so inconsistent?

White should win this because of the more central king.
E.g.

1. f4 h5 2. e5 a5 3. Kd5 g6 4. g3 Kd7 5. Ke4 Ke7 6. h3 c6 7. Kd4 Ke6 8. Ke4 b6 9. g4 hxg4 10. hxg4 f5+ 11. exf6 Kxf6 12. a4 Ke6 13. Kd4 Kf6 14. Kd3 Ke7 15. f5 g5 16. Ke4 Kd6 17. Kd4 b5 18. b3 b4 19. Kc4 Kd7 20. Kc5 Kc7 21. f6 Kd7 22. Kb6 Ke6 23. Kxa5 Kxf6 24. Kxb4

That quote is taken out of context, and is completely irrelevant for this particular position.

In this position, White's king much better placed, and thus White has a large advantage.

Essentially, there is NO difference between the kingside and the queenside.

Now, the difference arises due to the frequency of some typical configurations.

Kingside castling is far more frequent than Queenside castling (or than no castling), and USUALLY both kings will be in the kingside when the endgame begins. In this (most frequent) case, the Queenside pawn majority is an advantage over the Kingside pawn majority. One king is close enough to stop the enemy pawns, the other king will have to hurry and try to stop the pawns, because he is far from them.

But not always. Perhaps both castled to the Queenside? Then the Kingside pawn majority is an advantage!

Perhaps one of the kings did not castle... or perhaps they did castle, but the king moved towards the center afterwards... and so on.

So, instead of thinking of "queenside pawn majority", I recommend to think about a pawn majority which is far from the enemy king.

At 3200 Max setting, the best you can hope for as white is to hold the draw, unless black makes a huge mistake (which won't happen at that setting). I think the reason is that black can easily hold off white's pawn majority while attacking white's minority. White's king has to commit at some point to the defense of one or the other. The black king then switches over to the other side of the board to overwhelm white. For example:

1. f4 f6 2. e5 Ke6 3. exf6 Kxf6 4. g4 a5 5. b3 Ke6 6. Kc5 g6 7. Kd4 h5 8. h3 b6
9. Kc4 h4 10. Kb5 Kd5 11. f5 gxf5 12. gxf5 Ke5 13. Kc6 Kxf5 14. Kxc7 Kf4 15.
Kxb6 Kg3 16. Kxa5 Kxh3 17. b4 Kg4 18. b5 h3 19. b6 h2 20. b7 h1=Q 21. b8=Q Qd5+
22. Qb5 Qd8+ 23. Qb6 Qd5+ 24. Ka4 Qd7+ 25. Kb4 Qd2+ 26. Kb3 Qd3+ 27. Kb2 Qd2+
28. Kb1 Qe1+ 29. Kc2 Qe2+ 30. Kc3 Qf3+ 31. Kc2 Qxa3 32. Qd4+ Kf5 33. Kb1 Qf3 34.
Kc2 Qe4+ 35. Qxe4+ Kxe4 1/2-1/2

Under "Learn"/"Practice"/"Custom Position" I reversed the position so I could play as black, while running the drill in another tab. That way I could use black's moves from the drill against the computer, with it playing as white with white set at 3200 Max.

Quite true, if we are referring to the "Cooperative Chess" variation.

After 1.hxg4, Black simply keeps his king at e7/d7, and answers an eventual f4-f5 with ...g6-g5.

White cannot make real progress.