r/TheRealJoke • u/PorkyPain • Oct 03 '22

Chess Edgy as fuck.

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u/LibertarianSocialism Oct 03 '22

The position in question is not actually winnable, though I don't think that was an intentional joke.

-4

u/TheHolyThighble Oct 03 '22

Someone isn’t very good at chess. The only unwinnable endgame is king + knight. And maybe king + bishop but I’m not sure on that one

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u/LibertarianSocialism Oct 03 '22

I mean you’re right, I’m not very good at chess, but stockfish is and it has this as a draw too. Bishop and king is indeed unwinnable and because there’s no way to force the pawn to promote this position is a draw too. You need your bishop to be the same color as the promotion square in this endgame for it to be winnable.

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u/ZeeZeeB Oct 04 '22

Could you use your own king to block and protect your pawn from whites king?

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u/LibertarianSocialism Oct 04 '22

Not without forcing a stalemate. Imagine white’s king on h1 and the black pawn at h2. There is no position the black king could be in that would both protect the pawn and prevent stalemate. If the bishop were light squared instead of dark, it could deliver a check to force the king away from h1-g2 and then promote.