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- #15
- Sometimes players do a very poor job
- of counting how many moves it would
- take to queen a pawn. I have
- actually seen some players in
- tournaments try to follow the
- movement of both kings with their
- fingers. Here I am going
- to teach you how to count.
- We already know from position #2 in
- this lesson that it takes 4 moves to
- queen the pawn on g4 and 5 moves to
- queen the pawn on c7, but that is
- assuming that there are no pawns in
- the way.
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- #15
- The way I like to count this is that
- I look at each side independently.
- For White I count 3 moves to
- capture the h7 pawn plus I add 4
- immediately that I know it will take
- g4 pawn to Queen. That is 7
- moves.
- ...
- For Black I count 3 moves to win the
- pawn plus 1 more move to move the
- king out of the way and then 5 more
- moves to queen the pawn. That is
- a total of 9.
- ...
- So White will queen first and win.
- For example ...
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- White's alternative is to head over
- to the queenside to defend his c2
- pawn but this way is better because
- it forces a win.
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- Black can't get to his h7 pawn to
- defend it.
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- The pawn will drop.
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- Likewise.
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- ...
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- ...
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- The pawn advances.
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- Likewise.
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- ...
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- ...
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- ...
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- The need for the king to get out of
- the way of his own pawn is a serious
- drawback.
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- ...
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- It takes Black two moves longer to
- queen his pawn, but we already knew
- that from our counting technique.
- With proper play White can win
- this. See the next endgame
- section for a lesson on how to win
- with a queen vs. a pawn.
