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Silman mentions that King and Queen vs. King and pawn on the 7th rank wins, except when it's a flank or rook pawn (and the king is far away from the action, i.e. 6th rank).

The rook pawn case is clear; black king on h1 gets stalemating chances with its pawn on h2.

But the c-pawn and f-pawn case isn't clear to me. Why does King and Queen vs. King and flank pawn on the 7th rank draw?

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  • Qxc7 or Qxf7 when enemy king is in the corner is stalemate. This introduces stalemate tricks. – ferit May 4 '17 at 15:35
  • Both fail to mention the winning method with the pawn on b-file d-file and e-file, the king is checked and is forced to protect the pawn must move in front of the pawn, then the opposing king can advance one move. Then the king moves to the other ready to queen, the queen attacks again till she forces the king in front of the pawn to defend it or lest lose the pawn. This blocks the queening square! And the king advances one square and is repeated till the king gets over to the queen to support her and force the loss of the pawn! – theking Mar 30 '18 at 1:20
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    "Flank pawn" means c or f pawn? That's a new one on me. I've been playing chess (badly) for 70 years, and I never heard that usage before. – bof Mar 30 '18 at 5:06
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For a similar reason, black also gets stalemating chances:

[FEN "8/8/1K6/8/5Q2/8/5p2/6k1 w KQkq - 0 1"]

1.Qg3+ Kh1! 2.Qf3 Kg1 3.Qg3+ Kh1 4.Qd3 Kg1 5.Qg3+ Kh1 6.Qxf2 {stalemate}

There are some ways to win if the king is close, but if it's far away as you say then white can't make progress -- he can't take the pawn without stalemating black.

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