Szen 3 pawn problem

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4k3/5ppp/8/8/8/8/PPP5/3K4 w - - 0 1

Diagram 132 on page 61 of Fine's BASIC CHESS ENDINGS revised by Pal
Benko and diagram 68 in the original is captioned "Whoever moves wins"

Conventional wisdom holds that White on move will los. However, doesn't
White lose because in a symmetrical position whoever moves first loses
a tempo.

Someone told me that the caption should be WHOEVER MOVES LOSES. You
have to go deep, to about 53/65 ply before this evaluation occurs.
There is a trick to playing this ending and whoever knows it probably
wins with either side on move.

Can anyone verify the claim that whoever moves loses?

 

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I would suggest contacting one of the US's leading study composers,
Richard Becker:

richard@nospamStrateGems.org

Remove the "nospam" from the email address to email him.

 

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parrthenon@cs.com wrote:
> Can anyone verify the claim that whoever moves loses?

Whoever moves *wins*. You can find a lot of stuff about this via google
etc. Look for "ICC wild 7" for example.

1. Ke2 1-0

--
GCP

 

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<parrthenon@cs.com> wrote in message
news:1128017431.363579.293920@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> 4k3/5ppp/8/8/8/8/PPP5/3K4 w - - 0 1
>
> Diagram 132 on page 61 of Fine's BASIC CHESS ENDINGS revised by Pal
> Benko and diagram 68 in the original is captioned "Whoever moves wins"
>
> Conventional wisdom holds that White on move will los. However, doesn't
> White lose because in a symmetrical position whoever moves first loses
> a tempo.

Not all symmetrical positions are identically hold truth to this tempo
losing maneuver. As examples 8/8/8/3pK3/2kP4/8/8/8 w - - 0 1 loses (first to
move) while 8/8/8/3p1K2/1k1P4/8/8/8 w - - 0 1 wins (first to move). IMO:
Simple symmetrical as previous examples all capable of exhibiting both wins
or loses on First to Move basis but as the their complexities increase (by
materials in overall board coverage) the conclusion is usually more sided
(I'm speaking for symmetrical positions that could arised from Starting
Array).




>
> Someone told me that the caption should be WHOEVER MOVES LOSES. You
> have to go deep, to about 53/65 ply before this evaluation occurs.
> There is a trick to playing this ending and whoever knows it probably
> wins with either side on move.
>
> Can anyone verify the claim that whoever moves loses?

In OCTC, Szen staked the position in 20 games (making first move
alternately) with Saint-Amant and he won majority of the games thru
understanding of Successive Zugzwangs. I suspect he intentionally loses just
to keep the interest among his unwary victims (losing some would hurt
majority stakes). Hence to make the claim is like saying "Zugzwang is
cooked" but I could be wrong here...best get the solution of 53/65 from that
someone. Please share the solution if anyone could.



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