g and h Against the h-Pawn: The Winning Half

This structure is a razor. With Black to move you win, with White to move you do not, and nothing on the board changes except whose turn it is. Here Black has already spent his move, so the win is on.

The plan is Kh6. Not a breakthrough, not a pawn race. The king walks to h6, the black king is frozen on the back rank, and only then do the pawns move.

Spend the tempi one at a time. h3 first, then h4. Playing h4 in one go loses the win outright: the pawn on its home square is worth two waiting moves and you need both.

The break. g5, h5, then g6. After hxg6 hxg6 the surviving pawn is a g-pawn, and with your king on h6 it queens. Nothing here is a rook-pawn fortress.

The companion. Our drill "One Tempo Short: g and h vs the h-Pawn" is this same position with the black king still on g7 and White to move. There the count comes out one short and g7+ Kg8 Kg6 is stalemate. One tempo, two results.