Chess for Beginners

Key Squares

Written by

beginchess

in

, ,

Key squares are squares whose occupation by the King assures victory, regardless of whose turn it is to move. (Dvoretsky)

Key Squares with Pawn on Fourth Rank

White to move is a draw.

It is important to note that a pawn on the 4th rank or below has 3 key squares, whereas a pawn on the 5th rank or higher has six key squares.
Key Squares with Pawn on 5th Rank

A Pawn on the 5th rank or higher has 6 key squares.

In the example below the key squares are a6, b6 and c6. The key to winning in this position is for the White king to head to the square furthest away from the enemy King (a6), since that square will be the hardest to defend.

Key Squares Example I

1.Kc2! Ke7 2.Kb3 Kd6 3.Ka4 (3.Kc4? Kc6=) 3…Kc6 4.Ka5 Kb7 5.Kb5 +- and Black is in zugzwang.

Comments

10 responses to “Key Squares”

  1. Chess Teaching Avatar
    Chess Teaching

    About the last example.
    Note that all the key squares are at the same distance as seen from the white King, but they are at a different distance as seen from the black King.

  2. gail Avatar
    gail

    Glad I found this site-so very interesting. I can’t play- may be my brain is too week or may be I need pre-beginner course (?). And I do not know what is tsug-tsvang. Is it a position when a King, not being under the threat, does not have an option to move? Thank you. G

  3. Vess Avatar
    Vess

    In the first diagram, as i understood it is written that white to move leads to adraw, i can see that, the king needs to go back to c4 and guard a pawn, up to d8. I could be mistaken, please explain

  4. Vess Avatar
    Vess

    I wanted to say that i think white wins:)

  5. Arun Singh Avatar
    Arun Singh

    First position is standard endgame with white to play draw.If 1.Ke5 Ke7 if 1.Kc5 Kc7=.If 1.Kc4 Kc6 2.d5 Kd6 3.Kd4 Kd7( KEY :if you are forced back go on file of pawn)4.Ke5 Ke7 5.d6 Kd7 6.Kd5 Kd8 7.Kc6 Kc8 8.d7 Kd8 9.Kd6 stalemate draw.

  6. Madison Avatar
    Madison

    Hello 🙂 I bookmarked this blog. Thanks heaps for this!? if anyone else has anything, it would be much appreciated.

  7. Jacob Avatar
    Jacob

    Chess is a good game

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More posts