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You should only do the combo if you know it is a win or if you are going to be worse if you don't do the combo.

What you have to known because it's a kind of easy to see is that white will surely gain <the opposition>.

Why? because white have 2 pawns which are on the 2th rank wich means white can use a 1 or a 2-move with one of them to lose a tempo.

If black pushes his pawns to avoid this, he will set a position where the black king won't be able to enter in the white camp while the white has the break through c5.

The second thing is that black has no passer as a distraction while it's easy for the white to go to d4 and play c5.

The least and not the last is that is easy to count 8 moves for the black to queen their "f-pawn" if the king is at g5 (and if the white pawns are at h2 and g3) and it takes 5 move for black to queen the "d-pawn" if the king is in d4.

However after white takes the opposition thanks to their a pawn, black will be forced the go back at g6 and then the white king will go to e3 and will be in d4 when the black king will be in f6.

Well, that was my thought when I first looked at the puzzle and the end result of the combination. At least, I didn't think it was an obvious a win as one usually finds at the end of a Monday puzzle.

But, with a little visualization and calculation from there ... I'm no endgame player, but I could see the White K marches to f4 from the given position, and Black is just about stretched to the limit at that point.

White's biggest threat is getting rid of/trading the Black d-pawn and queening whichever pawn remains, but the Black K also has to defend against White gobbling up the Black K-side pawns and pushing his own. Once White eats/trades the Black f-pawn -- the only real candidate to become a passed pawn -- the White K can comfortably get to d4, play c5 dxc5; Kxc5, then play Kc6, d6 and Kc7, and the Black K can't get back to the center fast enough to challenge, nor can Black get to White's h-pawn, get out of the way and push his own h-pawn fast enough.

And Black can't go defend against the c- and d-pawns first, because he has to go a long way around to the Q-side to get to c5, while the White K simply eats the f-pawn, goes to e6 and shepherds the g-pawn home (or grabs the d6 pawn and Black plays Kxc4).

<33.?>

Target: 0:40;000
Taken: 0:12;007

Material: White up, ♙

Candidates: Qd7†, <[Qxe8†]>

-ML-
I went for both Queen sacs but of course I should have gone for the capture immediately (no fantasy Knight mate with Qd7† or such): the extra pawn on c5 will decide the game after:

<33.Qxe8†! Kxe8> else lose a Knight with Queen exchange after 33....Kf6 34.Qf8† .

<34.Ng7†> the whole idea of the deflection here.

White can simply head for d4 and start pushing the c-pawn. If the black king stops this by getting to e5 first, then the white king can shuffle between e3 and d3 until black runs out of pawn moves.

Even the simplest, ♔♙v♔ requires some nuances. You have to understand why this wins (regardless of whos move it is)

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while this draws if White has the move:

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Once you get those nuances down, and you learn the "box of the pawn" rule, you start to look into more complicated positions like this

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Here what you do is simple: count the pawns. You'll note White has an extra one. That will be enough to decide the game.

Don't misconstrue that to mean that "any extra pawn will win a ♔+♙ ending" -- that's not true at all. Like most things in chess there are many exceptions, but these involve specific motifs such as doubled pawns, complete blockades, or highly advanced pawns.