Today we learned King and pawn vs King endings. We learned what Mr.  Heinemann calls the "safety zone"and how if you're defending you can get a draw. Then we moved on to the concept of opposition. and the idea that you can queen your pawn if you can get 2 of the following 3 things:

1) Your King must be in front of the pawn 

2) You must step into opposition

3) Your King must be on the 6th rank or beyond. 

Then we learned about distant opposition. We didn't get to diagonal opposition or horizontal opposition which are rarely useful. Then we looked at a problem where each side and two pawns and the solution involved the idea of opposition. Here's another problem for you which involves opposition. 

PUZZLE

It's White's turn. Although White is ahead a pawn, he has no chance to win unless Black blunders. The best he can hope for is a draw. For example, if White plays  Kg2, Black will play Kg4 threatening to gobble up the White pawns with opposition, or the chance to steal the opposition.  What's the secret to getting a draw?

Tournament Sat at Diamondhead Educational Center Sign up at SchoolChess.org

Answer to puzzle

The reason this is difficult is because Black's pawn is so far behind the king that he can steal the opposition. So the solution is to close that gap. 

1. g6! Black cannot ignore the pawn or it will queen. If he takes it with the King, our king will be able to defend our f-pawn.

1. ... fxg6 2.f5! gxf5 Now finally Black cannot get the opposition if we play accurately.

3.  Kg1!   (NOT Kg2??) Kg5 4. Kf1 Kf4 5. Kf2 with a clear draw. That was really interesting!

RATINGS

Cavan	856
Q	634
Simon	621
Thomas	496
Alex	343
Jack	251
Soren	223
Audrey	170
Santi	164
Eldrych	144
Hunter	141