Compose a position where...

Has anyone tried to solve this?

“Compose a position where White has only a bare king and Black has king and three pawns (no double pawns). It is Black to play and the result is a draw.”

http://www.chessbase.com/puzzle/christmas2009/chr09-07.htm

7k/8/7p/8/4p3/6p1/6K1/8 b - - 0 1
7k/8/7p/8/4p3/6pK/8/8 b - - 0 1
k7/8/p7/8/3p4/1p6/1K6/8 b - - 0 1
k7/8/p7/8/3p4/Kp6/8/8 b - - 0 1

I can do it with one double pawn:

W: Kh1
B: Kh3, Ph2, h4, g4.
The pawns stop Black from releasing the stalemate. But I cannot see how to apply the same idea without the doubled h pawn.

The position is possible. The last move, Black moving first, was g3xh2+; Kg1-h1.

Spoiler Alert

I note you have a few diagram positions in just the right color to hide them.

From the CB post above…

A very hard (20 minutes) solution for John Nunn.

=

Nigh-impossible (8 hours plus, if ever, plus possibility of stroke) solution for LV.

:mrgreen:

(Now to figure out if my estimate is overblown. Something tells me I’m being conservative there. :wink: )
*
ETA… And in quoting the full post, you’ve “unhidden” them, since the quote box uses a slightly different shade than the base post. Shame we don’t have the “spoiler” code worked into the forum, which provides a collapsible box for text (default collapsed…)

Congratulations! I got nowhere on this.

1…Kg7 2.Kxg3 Kg6 3.Kg4! is the only move to draw.

Compare this position (which I’m pretty sure I tried):

1…Kg7 2.Kxg3 Kg6 3.Kg4 h6! (or 3…Kh6!) win.

It’s much simpler than that:

The original problem specified no doubled pawns, but said nothing about tripled pawns.

:laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

Bill Smythe

Also from the Xmas quiz, for the Smythean sensibility:

A fun problem for beginners!

More horsing around. :laughing: :wink:

That is indeed a fun problem. Not difficult, though.

Bill Smythe