Tactical Motif IV: Passed pawns & Promotions

Passed Pawns (fr: pion passe) are notoriously dangerous. Here's an illustration using at the same time the Back Rank motif ( where the King gets mated by Queen or Rook as his pawns take away any escape square):

White to play and win ( Alekhine-Nestor 1939)

1 Rc8! Rc8 2 Qe7 !! and the Queen cannot be taken due to promotion on c8.
Note that 1..Qd7 loses because of 2Qf8+!

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And now an exercise ( difficult level) on passed pawns: White to play and win




















Tal-Koblenz 1976