Isolated Queen Pawn (IQP) - Basic king and pawn ending

White to move

This is the basic IQP position. White has some problems here due to the d4 pawn. The problem consists of two things:

      1. The pawn needs to be protected at all time by the king

      2.  The square in front of the pawn is weak and often occupied by the king 

But all in all it should be a relatively easy for white to draw this position if he knows what he is doing. The main points are:

1.       Try to protect the square e4 with a pawn (f3). Then the king will be able to move between c3, d3 making it harder for black to force a zugzwang.

2.       Not move his pawns longer up the board than to the fourth rank. If white places a pawn on, let’s say, b5 then black might win it with e5, Kxe5 followed by Kd5, Kc5.

Okay, let’s look at a real example.

White to move

This time it’s black how has the bad pawn. One of the key elements in the position is that black lost some control over d5 (c6) which means some fighting is needed to secure a draw
1.h4! Taking space and threatening h5.
1…g6 Already black has the possibility of going wrong with
 

1…g5? After 2.hxg hxg 3.c4 Black will soon run out of moves. 3…b5 4.b3 bxc 5.bxc a5 6.a4 Zugzwang! 
1…h5 is also sufficient for a draw. 2.g4?is bad because of standard breakthrough 2…g5! (See diagram below)

White to move

Now blacks creates a past pawn on the h- file which makes life difficult for white.
3.hxg h4! 4. Ke3 Kf7 And black has the upper hand!

 2.c4 Fixing c5 and controlling d5
2…b5 3.cxb Played with a clever idea. Creating an outside past pawn!
3…axb 4.b3 Idea a4
4…Kd6 Not a4 right away because after 5…bxa 6.bxa c4! Suddenly it’s white who has all the problems because of the immune e5 pawn
5.Kd3 Preparing a4, Kc4
5…Kc6 6.g3 After 6.a4 bxa 7.bxa White wins with the outside past pawn. However there’s no need for this as after 6…c4+! (See diagram below)

 

7.bxc bxa! And suddenly black has the outside pawn and of course it’s wining!
But 7.Kc3 is better when a draw could be expected after 7…cxb 8.a5 b4+! 9.Kxb3 Kb5 10.a6 Kxa6 11. Kxb6 Kb6 (=)

6…h5 7.Ke4 Kd6 And it’s hard for white to make progress