Chess: The Square of the Pawn

In the endgame everything depends on being able to queen your pawn. If your pawn can get outside what is called the square of the pawn, he can get to the other side and queen. If not, he can't. Even though the king looks very far away from the pawn, it is actually inevitable that the king will get that pawn in time, assuming no other pieces are on the board, and Blacks, king is far enough away not to be able to protect it. It is an odd thing about endgames. It is an optical illusion. The king is no closer to the pawn if the pawn is kitty corner from the king, sitting right on d5. It is the same rule. If it is Black to move, the pawn queens, if it is White to move, obviously, the king takes the pawn.

 Endgames are full of strange logic, odd looking realities that make distances seem longer and shorter. It is no wonder that Lewis Carrol's "Through the looking Glass" takes place on a chess board. There are many instances in that story where time and space are warped, and distances look closer or nearer than they are. Consider the diagram above. It may take more or less moves to capture that pawn, but the reality is the same. The pawn will be captured if it is white to move, and if it is Black to move, the King, not matter how close he may look, can never capture that pawn. It might as well be across the board. And if it is White to move in the previous diagram, where the pawn was farther away, the pawn will be captured, so in a sense, the King is closer to the pawn far away if it is his move, than he is to the pawn that looks close, if it is not his move. Wierd huh? That's endgames for you.

If White's King captures the pawn on b7 then White will lose. Calculate it out. Imagine White capturing b7, then visualize Black, regardless of where his King is, playing pawn to c5. Now can you see that it is hopeless for White? Count out the moves. Even if White's King moves toward the c5 pawn, it is too late, because then Black will play d4, and if the white pawn captures the pawn on d4, then cxd4 moves the square of the pawn one square out of White's reach. He can move toward it, but never get there. Also capturing on a7, stepping aside to allow his pawn on the a-file to come forward doesn't work. It's too slow. This is harder to see in a game because there are other pawns on the board, giving the illusion that the square of the pawn doesn't apply, but if there were no other pawns there it would be very clear that White playing his king to b7 at any point would be a mistake if there was a pawn on d5, in fact, he would have never moved behind that d pawn at all. White needs to play b4 to stop c5 from coming.