“The Many in the One, the One in Many,” averred George Eliot in her epic novel “Middlemarch.” With this hint in mind please try to find white’s winning move.

White’s pawns are safe from black’s light-squared bishop, because they are all on dark squares. Conversely, black’s pawns can be attacked by white’s knight, regardless of what colored square they are on.

White’s best move is to immediately take advantage of this and capture black’s f5 pawn with its knight. Black then takes the knight with its e6 pawn. White’s king in turn eats black’s new pawn on f5.

Ostensibly, white has traded its knight for two black pawns. Black cannot prevent white from also capturing either its g4 or d5 pawn. Black cannot defend both pawns.

At the same time, white now has two connected passed pawns on f4 and e5. These connected passed pawns were worth the one knight. Depending on how black plays, white may not opt to win another pawn and instead concentrate on advancing its passed pawns.

One natural response for black is to guard its g4 pawn by moving its bishop to d1. White’s reply is to move its e5 pawn to e6. From here, white has a simple plan: move its king to e5, connect its e6 and f4 pawns, and either focus on escorting these pawns toward promotion or snatch black’s d5 before pushing its pawns toward promotion.

Another natural response for black is to move its king to f7. White wins by implementing the same plan as if black had moved its bishop to d1. White also wins by grabbing black’s g4 pawn and then slowly advancing its e5, f4 and f2 pawns.

Black has one defensive resource that gives white an opportunity to fumble the ball. Black’s best move is moving its bishop to c2, checking white and contesting the f5 square. White must resist the temptation to snatch black’s g4 pawn and move to g5. After the white king moves to g5, white still maintains controls of the f5 square and will soon advance its f4 pawn to f5. Once white does that, white is prepared to snatch the black g4 pawn and roll his pawn mass down the board, like the positions previously discussed.

The critical error is if white immediately snatches the g4 pawn after bc2+. This allows black to seize control of the f5 square with kg6.

From here, white must retreat its king, as black’s king next occupies the critical f5 square. Now white’s pawn advance is thwarted, as if a lion had suddenly put its paw down on ants blithely going to and fro. White’s king will shortly not be able to guard its f4 pawn. Black’s bishop can catch white’s e6 pawn if it gets any ideas and races for e8. Meanwhile, black’s king will penetrate into white’s queen-side and gobble up its pawns. And then black will successfully march its pawns toward their respective promotion squares.

In this week’s position the one white knight transforms itself into the power of many pawns amassed together. Eventually one of those pawns will transform back into one powerful queen — unless white makes one critical misstep. As George Eliot also said, “Consequences are unpitying.”