Zigzag: The King's Crooked Path to the Win
White to play and win, after Grigoriev, 1928
PlayBoth pawns are going to run. But the race is not the point. Your king takes a broken path, up to c4 and then back to d3 and c2. And that crooked route is what makes your new queen arrive with check.
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The King's Zigzag
White to play and win · Win against perfect defense
Waking the engine…
The theory
Watch the method: press play to see the winning idea run, or step through it move by move.
Board geometry is not ruler geometry: a king that walks a crooked line arrives just as fast as one that walks straight, and it can pick up extra work on the way. That is the zigzag.
King first. Only 1.Kc3 wins. The natural 1.g4 throws the point away, because Black's b-pawn races down with check and your king never catches it.
Up, then back. Kc3 and Kc4 drive the black king to the edge. Then, after g4 b5+, only Kd3 holds the win: the king turns back inside the square of the b-pawn while your own passer starts running.
The point of it all. The b-pawn is stopped by Kc2, Black's king is squeezed onto a2, and g8=Q lands with check down the g8-a2 diagonal. The new queen then rounds up the b-pawn at leisure.
In this drill every king move matters more than every pawn move. Walk the zigzag.
Keep going
Zigzag Around the Check
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Key Squares: The Winning Map
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King and Two Pawns vs King
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All 68 king & pawn positionsFollow the full curriculum (free)