Queen and pawn versus queen endgame - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The queen and pawn versus queen endgame is a chess endgame in which both sides have a queen

Queen (chess)

The queen is the most powerful piece in the game of chess, able to move any number of squares vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. Each player starts the game with one queen, placed in the middle of the first rank next to the king. With the chessboard oriented correctly, the white queen starts...

and one side has a pawn

Pawn (chess)

The pawn is the most numerous and weakest piece in the game of chess, historically representing infantry, or more particularly armed peasants or pikemen. Each player begins the game with eight pawns, one on each square of the rank immediately in front of the other pieces...

, which he is trying to promote

Promotion (chess)

Promotion is a chess rule describing the transformation of a pawn that reaches its eighth rank into the player's choice of a queen, knight, rook, or bishop of the same color . The new piece replaces the pawn on the same square and is part of the move. Promotion is not limited to pieces that have...

. It is very complicated and difficult to play. Cross-check

Cross-check

This article is about a type of move in chess. Cross checking is also a penalty in ice hockey.In chess, a cross-check is a tactic in which a check played in response to a check, especially when the original check is blocked by a piece that itself either delivers check or reveals a discovered check...

s are often used as a device to win the game by forcing the exchange

Exchange (chess)

In the tactics and strategy in the board game of chess, an exchange or trade of chess pieces is series of closely related moves, typically sequential, in which the two players capture each others pieces. Any types of pieces except the kings may possibly be exchanged, i. e. captured in an...

of queens. It is almost always a draw

Draw (chess)

In chess, a draw is when a game ends in a tie. It is one of the possible outcomes of a game, along with a win for White and a win for Black . Usually, in tournaments a draw is worth a half point to each player, while a win is worth one point to the victor and none to the loser.For the most part,...

if the defending king is in front of the pawn .

Karsten Müller

Karsten Müller

Dr. Karsten Müller was born November 23, 1970 in Hamburg, West Germany. He is a German chess Grandmaster. He earned the Grandmaster title in 1998 and a PhD in mathematics in 2002 at the University of Hamburg. He placed third in the 1996 German championship and second in the 1997 German...

and Frank Lamprecht

Frank Lamprecht

Frank Lamprecht is a German chess International Master and chess trainer. He is an author of Fundamental Chess Endings and Secrets of Pawn Endings, both with Karsten Müller.-External links:...

say that this endgame occurs quite frequently but Mark Dvoretsky

Mark Dvoretsky

Mark Izrailovich Dvoretsky is a world-renowned Russian chess trainer, writer and International Master.He was awarded the International Master title in 1975 and for a while, was widely regarded as the strongest IM in the world...

says that it occurs quite seldom , . This is the second most common "piece and pawn versus piece" endgame, next to the rook and pawn versus rook endgame .

History

Before about 1940 all that was known about this endgame was based on some superficial analysis of a few positions from the time of Philidor

François-André Danican Philidor

François-André Danican Philidor , often referred to as André Danican Philidor during his lifetime, was a French composer and chess player. He contributed to the early development of the opéra comique...

(1726–1795). Analyists gradually started to analyze the endgame. The endgame occurred in 1944 game between Botvinnik

Mikhail Botvinnik

Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik, Ph.D. was a Soviet and Russian International Grandmaster and three-time World Chess Champion. Working as an electrical engineer and computer scientist at the same time, he was one of the very few famous chess players who achieved distinction in another career while...

and Ravinsky (below) and much analysis followed. Paul Keres

Paul Keres

Paul Keres , was an Estonian chess grandmaster, and a renowned chess writer. He was among the world's top players from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s....

published a large amount of analysis in 1947–49. This analysis was put to the test in the 1954 game between Botvinnik and Minev

Nikolay Minev

Nikolay Nikolaev Minev was born in Rousse, Bulgaria, on 8 November 1931. He is a chess International master and noted chess author....

(below). Minev followed the suggestions of Keres and lost – revealing major flaws in the analysis. In 1955 Shakhmaty v SSSR

Shakhmaty v SSSR

Shakhmaty v SSSR was a Russian chess magazine published 1931-91. It was edited by Viacheslav Ragozin for several years. Yuri Averbakh was also an editor. From 1921 or 1925 through 1930 it was titled Shakhmatny Listok and edited by Alexander Ilyin-Genevsky. The circulation was 55,000....

started a competition for the best analysis of this endgame. Several theorists had contributed useful analysis by the time the competition ended in 1959. Early analysts thought that the ending was almost always drawn with a knight pawn, but Yuri Averbakh

Yuri Averbakh

Yuri Lvovich Averbakh is a Soviet and Russian chess player and author. He is currently the oldest living chess grandmaster.-Life and career:...

questioned that in the 1950s. Averbakh, working with previous analysis, published his extensive analysis in 1962 .

A complete analysis was not done until the advent of endgame tablebase

Endgame tablebase

An endgame tablebase is a computerized database that contains precalculated exhaustive analysis of a chess endgame position. It is typically used by a computer chess engine during play, or by a human or computer that is retrospectively analysing a game that has already been played.The tablebase...

s, which showed that more positions can be won than was previously thought. Before tablebases, Averbach provided the best coverage, but the 70 pages of analysis in Comprehensive Chess Endgames mainly covered only simple positions with the pawn already on the seventh rank . John Nunn

John Nunn

John Denis Martin Nunn is one of England's strongest chess players and once belonged to the world's top ten. He is also a three times world champion in chess problem solving, a chess writer and publisher, and a mathematician....

wrote three books based on the most important endgames in the five-piece endgame tablebases but omitted this endgame because "... it proved too hard to understand" . He also commented "This is the trickiest of all five-man endings, which is unfortunate as it is one of the most common to arise in practice."

General considerations

According to Reuben Fine

Reuben Fine

Reuben Fine was one of the strongest chess players in the world from the early 1930s through the 1940s, an International Grandmaster, psychologist, university professor, and author of many books on both chess and psychology.Fine won five medals in three chess Olympiads. Fine won the U.S...

and Pal Benko

Pál Benko

Pal Benko is a chess grandmaster, author, and composer of endgame studies and chess problems.- Early life :Benko was born in France but was raised in Hungary. He was Hungarian champion by age 20. He emigrated to the United States in 1958, after defecting following the World Student Team...

, this ending is a draw

Draw (chess)

unless the pawn is a bishop pawn or a central pawn (i.e. king pawn or queen pawn) and the pawn is in the seventh rank and is supported by its king

King (chess)

In chess, the king is the most important piece. The object of the game is to trap the opponent's king so that its escape is not possible . If a player's king is threatened with capture, it is said to be in check, and the player must remove the threat of capture on the next move. If this cannot be...

. If the defending king can get in front of the pawn, the game is a draw; otherwise it is best for the defender to keep his king far away from the pawn. The defender should keep checking until he runs out of check, and then pin

Pin (chess)

In chess, a pin is a situation brought on by an attacking piece in which a defending piece cannot move without exposing a more valuable defending piece on its other side to capture by the attacking piece...

the pawn . Based on computer analysis, Müller and Lamprecht give a different description. According to them, normally the defending king needs to be in front of the pawn. A rook pawn or knight pawn is a theoretical draw if the defending king is in front or near the pawn or if the king is in the corner opposite the pawn's promotion

Promotion (chess)

square. A knight pawn has more practical winning chances than a rook pawn. A bishop pawn or central pawn is a win if the defending king is not in front of the pawn. A bishop pawn has better winning chances than a central pawn. The position of the defending king is especially important . John Nunn

John Nunn

states that analysis since Fine's initial work (published in 1941 in Basic Chess Endings
Basic Chess Endings
Basic Chess Endings is a book on chess endgames which was written by Grandmaster Reuben Fine and originally published in 1941. It is considered the first systematic book in English on the endgame phase of the game of chess. It is the best-known endgame book in English and is a classic piece of...

) has shown that there are many more winning positions than were known at that time (ignoring the fifty-move rule in some cases) . Wins by the side with the pawn take up to 59 moves . A cross-check

Cross-check

may be necessary to win.

Edmar Mednis

Edmar Mednis

Edmar John Mednis was an American International Grandmaster of chess born in Riga, Latvia. He was also a popular and respected chess writer.-Biography:...

gave this breakdown when the defending king is not able to help:

A bishop pawn is the best pawn to have. It is relatively easy to advance and is a win once it reaches the seventh rank.
A central pawn wins if it reaches the seventh rank, but it is difficult to get it there. Even if the pawn reaches the sixth rank, the position is usually a draw.
A knight pawn is relatively easy to get to the seventh rank, but the position may be a theoretical draw.
Positions with rook pawns are theoretical draws, but in practice it may be difficult to draw .

John Nunn gives this summary for the defense:

with a central pawn, the defense has two possibilities: get the king in front of the pawn or get the king to corner nearest to the pawn's promotion square
with a bishop pawn, the defender's only chance is to get the king in front of the pawn
with a knight pawn, the defender must get the king in front of the pawn or in the corner furthest from the promotion square
a rook pawn is generally a draw and the defensive guidelines are the same as for a knight pawn.

Naturally, the less advanced the pawn is, the better the defensive chances .

Rook pawn

In 1985 the chess computer Belle completed the endgame tablebase for this ending. The rook pawn is the most important for actual games since it arises the most frequently, since it is the least likely pawn to have been exchanged . A rook pawn needs to be on at least the sixth rank to have decent winning chances .

Mednis gave these guidelines, based on his analysis of the tablebase. Assume that White has a pawn on the h file.

To draw:

The best area for the king is in the corner opposite the pawn's promotion square. This keeps it from blocking checks by its queen.
When the white queen is centralized, the safest place for the black king is probably b3.
Once the king is in the far corner it should stay there.
At certain points the king can be on other squares and still draw, but it is much more difficult to play correctly.
The queen should be centralized.
The queen checks on the central squares for more flexibility on future moves.
The queen checks in ways so that the white queen cannot be centralized.
The queen is used to keep the king in front of its pawn.
The queen is used to prevent the white queen from becoming active.
If the queen is on e5 it will draw against a pawn on h7 and queen on g6 or f7 if the black king is in the far corner.
The queen is kept active and in a flexible place. It will be more active on c2 than h7.
The queen on h7 is often good enough to draw.

To win:

The worst place for the king is in front of the pawn.
There are two good places for the king:
- to the side of the pawn, e.g. f7, f8, or e8.
- close to the black king, which allows for counterchecks.
The pawn is advanced to the seventh rank only if the queen is in place to prevent perpetual check
Perpetual check
In the game of chess, perpetual check is a situation in which one player can force a draw by an unending series of checks. Such a situation typically arises when the player who is checking cannot deliver checkmate; while failing to continue the series of checks gives the opponent at least a chance...

.
If the pawn is on h7, the best square for the queen is e4. In favorable circumstances, other squares (e.g. f5, d7) will also win .

Knight pawn

A knight pawn should be on at least the fifth rank to have good winning chances. A knight pawn on the fifth rank has better winning chances than a rook pawn on the sixth rank. There are two reasons for this:

the king has squares on the adjacent rook file to try to avoid perpetual check
the exchange of queens is less likely to lead to a drawn king and pawn versus king endgame.

The best place for the defending king is in front of the pawn and the second place is in the corner opposite its promotion square .

Bishop pawn

A bishop pawn offers the best winning chances. One reason is that there is no drawing zone in the opposite corner for the black king if the pawn is on at least the fourth rank. If the pawn is on the fifth rank the defender's chances are small unless the king is in front of the pawn. A pawn on the sixth rank wins unless the defending king is in front of the pawn .

Central pawn

A central pawn has better chances to win than a rook pawn or knight pawn, but not as good as a bishop pawn. As with the bishop pawn, there is no drawing zone for the defending king in the opposite corner. It is better for the defending king to be on the "short side" of the pawn rather than the "long side" .

Botvinnik vs. Minev

Mikhail Botvinnik

was the first person to find the correct winning method, while analyzing this adjourned game with Nikolay Minev

Nikolay Minev

Nikolay Nikolaev Minev was born in Rousse, Bulgaria, on 8 November 1931. He is a chess International master and noted chess author....

in 1954 .
56. Qg4+ Ka5 57. Qxe6 Qh8+ 58. Kg6 Qc3 59. g4 Qd2 60. g5 Qd4 61. Qf5+ Ka4 62. Kh5 Qh8+ 63. Kg4 Qh1 64. Qf4+ Ka5 65. Qe5+ Ka4 66. g6 Qd1+ 67. Kg5 Qg8+ 68. Kf5 Qc8+ 69. Kf4 Qc1+ 70. Qe3 Qc7+ 71. Qe5 Qc1+ 72. Kf5 Qc8+ 73. Kg5 Qd8+ 74. Qf6 Qd5+ 75. Qf5 Qd8+ 76. Kh5 Qe8 77. Qf4+ Ka5 78. Qd2+ Ka4 79. Qd4+ Ka5 80. Kg5 Qe7+ 81. Kf5 Qf8+ 82. Ke4 Qh6 83. Qe5+ Ka4 84. g7 Qh1+ 85. Kd4 Qd1+ 86. Kc5 Qc1+ 87. Kd6 Qd2+ 88. Ke6 Qa2+ 89. Qd5 Qe2+ 90. Kd6 Qh2+ 91. Kc5!! 1-0
Now no matter what Black does, a cross-check

Cross-check

forces the exchange of queens and then the pawn promotes

Promotion (chess)

Botvinnik vs. Ravinsky

This 1944 game between Botvinnik and Grigory Ravinsky concluded:

87. Qa7+ Kf6 88. Qf7+ Ke5 89. Kh6 Qh1+ 90. Kg7 Kd4 91. Qf6+ Kc5 92. Kg8 Kb5 93. g7 Ka4 94. Kf7 Qh5+ 95. Ke7 Qc5+ 96. Qd6 Qg5+ 97. Kf8 Qf5+ 98. Ke8 Qh5+ 99. Kf8 Qf5+ 100. Ke7 Qg5+ 101. Qf6 Qc5+ 102. Kd7 Qd5+ 103. Kc7 Qa5+ 104. Kb7 Qb5+ 105. Qb6 Qd7+ 106. Qc7 Qb5+ 107. Ka7 Qd5

A barrage of checks by the defending queen usually stops the attacking side from making much progress.

108. Kb8 Qg8+ 109. Ka7 Qd5 110. Qf4+ Ka5 111. Qf6 Qc5+ 112. Kb7 Qb5+ 113. Kc7 Qc5+ 114. Kd7 Qd5+ 115. Ke7 Qc5+ 116. Kf7 Qc4+ 117. Ke7 Qc5+ 118. Ke6 Qc8+ 119. Ke5 Qc3+ 120. Kf5 Qd3+ 121. Kg5 Qe3+ 122. Kg6 Qe8+ 123. Kh6 Qg8 124. Qe5+ Ka4 125. Kg6 Qc8 126. Qf4+ 1-0

A possible continuation, by endgame tablebase

Endgame tablebase

s, would be:
126. ...Kb3 127. Qf7+ Ka4 128. g8Q Qg4+ 129. Kh6 Qh4+ 130. Kg7 Qg3+ 131. Kf8 Qd6+ 132. Qe7 Qh6+ 133. Qgg7 Qf4+ 134. Qgf7 Qb8+ 135. Qee8+!!

The cross-check 135. Qee8+ (or 135. Qfe8+) forces 135. ... Qxe8+ 136. Qxe8+, winning by a basic checkmate

Checkmate

Checkmate is a situation in chess in which one player's king is threatened with capture and there is no way to meet that threat. Or, simply put, the king is under direct attack and cannot avoid being captured...

. 135. ... Qb5, blocking the check, does not change anything after 136. Qxb5+ Kxb5.

Queen and two pawns versus a queen

Normally this is a win for the two pawns, but a surprising result of the six-piece endgame tablebase

Endgame tablebase

is that if the two pawns are an adjacent rook pawn and knight pawn, it is usually a draw if the defending king is in front of the pawns .

External links

The Endgame Tactician: Queen & Pawn vs Queen - Chess.com
Chess.com
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