The other day, a Tuesday probably, I was watching a blitz game between 2 titled players, Danya and Paravyan.
They have about 1 minute remaining each, and from this moment
they both struggle to perform complex calculations within the narrow remaining time frame.
It would take amateur players (incl. myself) quite some time to try to accurately push the right pawn or move the king.
But I thought at that level this position must have already occurred, or, more likely, be somewhat close enough to a previous one, that the players would play in a more automatic fashion.
Obviously that's not the case ; even at the candidates, or other major tournaments in standard games, in a 3 vs 3 pawns endgame, players dedicate a huge amount of time between some of these final moves. This is seemingly still complex.
While mathematically, there is still a huge number of possible combinations, isn't a few pawns endgame - at that level - resemble a pattern the players know, and they could play more quickly, but they take time just to prevent a stupid mistake?