Chessville Instruction - Center Squares - Advancing the Pass Pawn - Threat vs. Execution

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Advancing the Passed Pawn
- Threat vs. Execution
by IM Igor Khmelnitsky

In my opinion, promoting a pawn is one of the most exciting thing in chess. Rarely, however, does the promotion go uncontested. It is more common that an opponent can stop the promotion for a certain price – material or time. The question is – what is the right price? Not only must one gain material, but also foresee how it will influence the subsequent flow of the game.

Let's start with this relatively simple example from the game of two boys; both are my students and rated approximately 800:

Diagram 1 Black to Move

How do you assess the position?
What should Black do?

Please stop – SOLUTION is below.

IM Igor Khmelnitsky

Igor is a winner of many national and international tournaments in Europe and the United States. At various points during his career, he has won individual encounters with many of the game’s best players - including Lev Alburt, Boris Alterman, Viorel Bologan, Roman Dzindzikhashvili, Vasily Ivanchuk, Alexander Ivanov, Oleg Romanishin, Alexander Shabalov, Evgeniy Sveshnikov, Patrick Wolff, and Alex Yermolinsky. In total, Igor has beaten over 30 different Grandmasters. He has been a participant in the Ukrainian National Championship as well as a three times contestant in the US National Championship.

Black's king has snuck onto g1, and is ready to help the pawn to get through. White's last move was 1.Bh1-a8 and here Black responded 1…h1=Q. I was watching the game from few feet away and wasn't sure who was going to win up until the last Black’s move. After 2.Bxh1 Kxh1 3.Kd6 and 4.c5, White easily won the game. Of course, in the starting position Black should be losing no matter what he does. After 1...Kf2, or any other move, White will simply play Kd6, c5 and then b6 at the right moment, getting the a-pawn through to the 8th rank.

However, the h2-pawn, while it was on the board, presented a serious threat. It is not that unlikely that an 800-rated player, playing the White pieces, would have placed his K on d5 or pushed his pawn c4-c5-c6, inadvertently cutting off his bishop and allowing ...h1=Q. By playing 1…h1=Q?? , Black eliminated White's opportunity to make a mistake.

Conclusion: The black pawn on h2 created a strong Threat, but advancing it - was a weak Execution.

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The next two examples are from the games of one of my long-distance students, rated approximately 1400. They are much more complex. The first one was a pawn endgame:

Diagram 2 White to Move

How do you assess the position?
What are plans for both sides?
What should White do?

Please stop – SOLUTION is below.

A very exciting pawn endgame. Brief evaluation – Black pawns on e3 and g4 are self-sufficient while defending each other (taking Kg2-g3xg4 allows the ...e3-e2 advance and Kg2-f1 allows the ...g4-g3 advance), but they can not make progress without the help of the black king. White has the potential to create two separated passed pawns that the black king won’t be able to stop. Black's king is already very active and is trying to win the h6-pawn. If he does that without losing sight of White's Q-side pawns, Black will win. Therefore, White must hurry to try and create the passed pawn on the Q-side.

Because this position is dynamic, we can can't clearly evaluate it until we do all of the calculations:

White played 1.h7?? Clearly this move is not in line with White's optimal strategy described in the paragraph above and it is a serious mistake. This move loses a very valuable tempo. 1…Kg7 2.h8=Q+?? (losing another tempo) 2…Kxh8 3.b4 Kg7 4.bxa5 bxa5 5.c4 Kf6 and Black's king is easily in the square of the c-pawn. What went wrong? Well, White gave away two moves by pushing the h-pawn. Black would have to go to the h-file no matter what, so White should have seized the opportunity to start action on the Q-side.

Conclusion: The white pawn on h6 created a strong Threat, but advancing it - was a weak Execution.

What should White have done? Well, there are three moves: 1.a4, 1.b4 or 1.c4.

First, let’s look at 1.c4. Normally endgame theory suggests advancing the pawn that doesn’t have an opponent’s pawn in its way. However, in this situation, I am hoping you got the immediate feeling that it is too slow as the c-pawn is the closest one to the black king. 1…Kg6 2.b3 (what else? 2.a3 a4! freezing the Q-side) Kxh6 3.a3 Kg6 4.b4 axb4 5.cxb4 Kf6 and again the black king is easily in the range (the square) of the white pawns.

A bit more aggressive is 1.b4. However, it also allows a freeze after 1…axb4 2.cxb4 b5! Here it is not as devastating as in the above line (sub variation 2.a3 a4) since White can play 3.a4 (what else?) bxa4 4. h7 Kg7 5.b5

Diagram 3 Black to Move

How do you assess the position?
Who will win the pawn race?
Or is it a Draw?

Please stop – SOLUTION is below.

Black wins easily after 5…e2! Compare this move with the 1.h7?? (in Diagram 1). I did criticize the latter. The difference is that in order to outrun White's b-pawn, Black must lure the white king to the 1^st rank. Thus the e-pawn moves forward. Notice that it doesn’t cost Black any tempi in the pawn race, since White can’t advance the b-pawn. 6.Kf2 a3 7. b6 a2 8.b7 e1=Q+! (and Black wins!) 9.Kxe1 a1=Q+.

Conclusion: in Diagram 3, Black's e3-pawn wasn't as essential and thus presented a weak Threat.
Advancing it was a part of the plan to lure the white king to the 1st rank,
enabling the promotion of the a-pawn with check.

Back to Diagram 2. With two out of three pawn advances on the Q-side losing (1.c4 and 1.b4), we will turn to the last one - 1.a4. After, 1... Kg6 2.b4 Kxh6 3.b5! (3.bxa5?? bxa5 4.c4 Kg6 and the king will catch the pawn) Kg5 4.c4 Kf5 (trying to ignore White's threats and promote K-side pawns via 4... Kf4 5.c5 Ke4 [or 5...g3? 6.cxb6 e2 7.b7 e1=Q 8.b8=Q+] 6.cxb6 e2 7.b7 [7.Ke2 Kd3] e1=Q 8.b8=Q will result in the drawn queen-endgame.) 5.c5 Ke6 (5... bxc5 6.b6 and the king is outside of the 'square' and won't catch the b=pawn) 6.c6

Diagram 4 Black to Move

How do you assess the position?
What are plans for both sides?
What should Black do?

Please stop – SOLUTION is below.

The protected passed pawn on c6 forces Black's king to stick around. He can't cross the 5th rank. White's king must shuttle between g2-g3 to avoid the advance of the black pawns. Thus, we have a Draw. 6...Kd6 7.Kg3 (7.Kf1?? g3 and Black wins) Ke6 8.Kg2=

Thus if White played 1.a4, he would be able to get a DRAW.

Conclusion: in Diagram 4, White's c6-pawn and Black's pawns on e3 and g4 present
serious Threats in their current positions, but can not be advanced unless the opponent makes a mistake.

The second example from the games of my 1400-rated player is a bishop vs. knight endgame:

Diagram 5 Black to Move

How do you assess the position?
What are plans for both sides?
What should Black do?

Please stop – SOLUTION is below.

Once again we have the black king supporting the pawn on the 7^th rank, and the bishop controlling the square of promotion. The game continued 1…b1=Q?? 2.Bxb1 Kxb1 3.Ke3 Kc1? (3….Nf4 would have been a final trap 4.Ke4 = ; if 4.h4?? 5.Kg2+ and Nxh4 winning). 4.Kf3=. Black can’t stop Kg3 and h4. Promoting the pawn and winning the bishop was a major mistake - it put Black's king out of position and allowed White's king to attack the knight and force the trade of the last black pawn.

Take another look at the starting position. By keeping the pawn on b2, Black keeps White's bishop virtually out of the game anyway, so there is no need to make its ‘death' official. Additionally, Black has a threat of placing the knight on c2 and getting the b2-pawn ‘home free’. Because of this threat, White's king can’t freely run to the K-side. So the best move is 1…Nf2 2.h3 Nxh3 and Black has various winning ideas, including simply promoting the pawn and winning the bishop. I already discussed in one of my prior articles how the knight can easily defend the pawn when the pawn is blocked by the opponent’s pawn. Check Example 2B here.

Conclusion: Black's b2-pawn created a strong Threat, but advancing it - was a weak Execution
as it allowed White to reach a drawn position with very little effort.

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In Summary – when you have a far advanced passed pawn, consider the following:

When your opponent is able to defend the promotion square and is ready to give up material:

Does winning the material specifically improves your chances?
Is keeping the pawn on the 7^th and maintaining the threat maybe potentially more beneficial? (Diagrams 1 & 5)

When your opponent's king or a piece is defending your pawn and you plan to use it as a Decoy consider the following:

Avoid advancing your decoy, unless it hasn’t yet reached the optimal position.
The optimal position is usually the least advanced position that makes opponent’s king or another piece fully commit to the decoy and permits activity for your other pawns or pieces. (Diagrams 2, 3 & 4)

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More on chess training (serious and enlightening):

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IM Igor Khmelnitsky's book, Chess Exam and Training Guide: Rate Yourself and Learn How to Improve (2004, IamCoach Press) - winner of Book of the Year from CJA - Chess Journalists of America (2005).

"...will quickly and accurately test your combinational ability, positional judgment and endgame expertise... Instructive and Entertaining!" - Alex Yermolinsky, Grandmaster, former US Champion and Olympic team member.