How do I MATE with king pawn vs King?????? I've been trying this puzzle for HOURS?

Question

*pant pant*

and I can't figure it out! the hint/answer is "more the king infront of the pawn. BUT king keeps running circles avoiding my king to advance before my pawn? the black king is always inline with my king or smothering my pawn. !!!!!

Answer 1

use opposition (using the king to push the other king away or limit his movement because of the no king side by side rule), move the king to the pawn, so that the other king is forced to move back or side, then push the pawn up, and queen, other than that, it can only be a stalemate

Answer 2

Control the square the pawn promotes on.  If , when in front of the pawn in the last three rows, he zigs left you zag right.  That way yo controll the squares the pawn must run down.  Once your king is on the 7th rank next to the pawn's file, don't move it.  Assuming you brought the pawn with you and it is on the 5th rank. you can move it to the 6th, 7th and promote it on the 8th and your opponent can do nothing.

He covers a pawn promotion later in the film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFRNFh3ey...

Answer 3

Learn the concept of "opposition".

Also, it can depend on which pawn you're talking about.  A pawn on the end files ("a" or "h" files) against a lone King can lead to a draw... any other pawn should be able to mate.  But you need to force your opponent's King out of the path of your pawn, and you do this using your own King (in combination with the pawn).

Here's a pretty good primer on that ending:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_and_pa...

If you learn the concepts of this ending, it will help you in a lot of ways.  

btw, you've asked a very good question...

Your question points out exactly why endgames should be studied first, way before studying openings.  

You have to be able to know how a couple of pieces can work together before you can understand how ALL of the pieces work together, and in endgames, there are only a very few pieces left on the board.  That's why it's best to study endgames first...so you can learn how a King and Pawn (or a King and Rook,   King and two bishps, etc) work together, which can then be applied to middle and opening game phases.

Openings should be the LAST thing any player studies.

Learn endgames.

Then, learn tactics and middlegame concepts.

Then worry about openings.

All the "opening" knowledge (or memorization, in the case of most players that are below expert level) in the world won't do anyone any good if they don't understand proper endgame techniques .

Learning endgames is the building block for learning middlegame tactics, which decide the vast majority of games between players below expert level (called "class" players).

Class players make too many tactical mistakes during a game for the opening to be of any significance.

Learning the King and Pawn vs. King endgame is a matter of understanding what the key squares and key ranks are... make sure you understand where your King and your opponent's King need to be when your pawn reaches the 5th and 6th ranks, so that you don't end up with a stalemate (or, if YOU have the lone King, you might be able to force a stalemate against a player who doesn't understand how to mate in that scenario).

And above all, LEARN endgame techniques.. .don't just memorize them... remember to learn the WHY'S of these techniques, because then it will be easier to remember them.

Have fun, and all the best to you!

Answer 4

protect the pawn until you can make it a queen an then its easy,, you cannot check mate with just the pawn an king.

Answer 5

You can't check a king with your king, because that would be putting yourself in check and for the other person to get themselves out of check they could take your king and, GAME OVER.

Answer 6

Use the opposition-try and push the opponent's king back, then promote your pawn and corner their king and you will win.

Answer 7

thats really hard. you need to have the right postion to get a mate, otherwise its a draw. You should get a book on endgames for you can know when its a win or not.