The pawn breakthrough

White to move and win.

Three pawns against three, kings far away, and a sacrifice wins. A favourite of puzzle books, and it happens in real games.

The idea

  1. Sacrifice the middle pawn first.
  2. Whichever way Black captures, push the pawn on the other side and sacrifice again.
  3. The last pawn promotes before the enemy king arrives.

More king and pawn

All endgames · Practice · Openings