A Small Miss

In a tournament game a couple of weeks back I reached the following position as White, with Black to play:

Black to move

Here Black played 1 … Kc4 and after 2 g4 the game was quickly decided. I had already seen this breakthrough during the exchanges leading up to this position, so it was easy to play.

But I believe Black had a better practical try, namely 1 … f5. Surprisingly, White has one and only one path to victory, and he can even lose if he gets very careless. I will put the solution below the fold.

Having already seen the breakthrough once, the second time is easy to find. Namely 1 … f5, 2 e4! fxe4, 3 g4! and White wins. But that is the ONLY path to victory. In fact, White can easily go astray and lose here, for example with 2 Kf3 Kc4, 3 Kf4 Kb3, and now 4 Kxf5?? loses, as 4 … Kxa3 allows Black to queen first with check if White runs his e-pawn, and Black queens first with time to cover White's queening squares in all other variations. And if White tries 2 Kd3, then Black simply grabs the opposition with 2 … Kd5, and his picket line becomes an unbreakable cordon.

Now I am pretty sure I would have seen the winning line and played it as I had already seen the key breakthrough. But I only had two minutes left on the clock! (The time control had been game in 75 minutes with a 5 second delay.) With ten minutes on the clock I am certain I would play the correct moves, but with only two I just can't have complete confidence. So call that a minor miss by my opponent, and another lesson in endgame precision for me.