Queen versus Pawn
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The Queen versus Pawn Endgame (KQKP) is usually won by the queen side, in particular if the queen can occupy the pawn's frontspan. Even if the pawn is ready to promote, supported by its own king, the technique is to come closer with the attacking king, after the defending king was forced to block the promotion square due to a queen check. However, with rook and bishop pawns on the seventh (second) rank, stalemate is looming with the defending king in the corner. There are even some rare cases with center and knight pawns where the attacking king hinders its own queen to give check [1]. This endgame with pawn on the 7th rank often occurs after a KPKP pawn race with unstoppable passers, where the cardinality of their frontspans differs by two with the defending side to move.
Rook Pawn on 7th
The draw motive is a stalemate threat, after the defending king blocks its own pawn after a queen check on the neighbouring knight file, so that the attacking king can't come closer. A Chebyshev Distance of at least four to the promotion square with a Manhattan distance less than eight for the attacking king is necessary to win that game (green area below). However, there are positions where the attacking king may reduce the distance due to discovered check.
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| Draw | Win due to discovered check |
Bishop Pawn on 7th
work in progress ...
Forum Posts
- Marcel Duchamp endgame "splits" engines / hash phenomenon by Kenneth Regan, CCC, February 19, 2018 » Chess Problems, Compositions and Studies, Marcel Duchamp, Transposition Table
- KQKP and the like by Harm Geert Muller, CCC, May 25, 2019
External Links
- Queen versus pawn endgame from Wikipedia
- Queen vs. Pawn on 7th by TonightOnly, Chess.com, July 12, 2008
