Grigoriev 1920: Two Spare Tempi and a Stalemate

Watch the method: press play to see the winning idea run, or step through it move by move.

Grigoriev's 1920 study is the model for f and h pawns against a lone h pawn. You are a pawn down, your king is being shouldered around, and the saving idea is stalemate.

One move draws. Kf2 is the only move that holds. Both Kh1 and Kf1 lose immediately, so the instinct to sprint for the rook-pawn corner is precisely the wrong instinct here. There is nothing to defend on h1.

The cage on f1. Play runs 1.Kf2 Kg4 2.Ke3 h6 3.Kf2 Kf4 4.Ke1 Ke3 5.Kf1 h5 6.Ke1 f2+ 7.Kf1. The black pawn on f2 now covers e1 and g1, the black king covers e2 and g2, and f2 itself is guarded. White's king has no legal square at all. That is not a disaster, it is the point.

Steinitz's rule supplies the tempi. Steinitz's paradox says pawns stand best on their original squares, because from home a pawn can choose to move one square or two. With the king frozen on f1, the h-pawn on h2 is the only thing that can move, and it has exactly two moves in it: h3 and then h4. After 7...Kf3 8.h3 Kg3 9.h4, Black cannot make progress, and if the black king comes back to f3 White has no legal move left and the game is a stalemate.

In this drill you defend a pawn down. Play Kf2, keep your king in the e1, f1, f2, e3 box, and keep the h-pawn's two reserve moves in your pocket until the stalemate needs them.