What is the difference in usage and meaning between 勝たねば and 勝たなければ? I have
only learnt how 勝つ get conjugated to be 勝たなければ. How does 勝たねば come about?

> 試合の終わりには、どちらかが勝たねばならない。 ([source](https://www.japanesepod101.com/japanese-
> phrases/04152021#wotd-widget))
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grammar
Difference between 勝たねば & 勝たなければ
### What is the difference in usage and meaning between 勝【か】たねば and 勝【か】たなければ?

My perspective is as a learner of Japanese and not as a native speaker.
勝【か】たねば sounds more formal and stuffy to me, borderline Classical Japanese,
something I'd only expect to see in writing. It's also possible that this form
is used more in certain dialects or regional variants that I'm not familiar
with.

Meanwhile, 勝【か】たなければ sounds more regular, everyday, modern, the kind of
conjugation form I'm used to both hearing and reading.

I defer to native speakers for a fuller discussion of differences in nuance.

### How does 勝たねば come about?

Let's break down 勝【か】たねば into its constituent pieces.

  * 勝【か】た～ is the 未然形【みぜんけい】 or "irrealis" ("hasn't happened yet") stem of the verb 勝【か】つ ("to win"). This stem is used to to construct the plain-form negative 勝【か】たない, so sometimes this might also be called the "negative" stem.
  * ね is the 已然形【いぜんけい】 ("realis" stem, "has happened") or 仮定形【かていけい】 ("hypothetical" stem) of the Classical Japanese negative verb ending ～ず. You generally only encounter this in writing or formal speech situations. In everyday speech, the ～ず ending has been replaced by the ～ない ending.  
This _izenkei_ form is vaguely similar to the subjunctive seen in many
European languages. It's used to talk about things as if they have happened,
or as if they could happen. This is the verb stem used with the conditional or
hypothetical ～ば ending.

    * As the hypothetical stem of the negative suffix, this ～ね～ is functionally equivalent to modern ～なけれ～.
  * ば is the conditional verb suffix. This is used to express a necessary condition for the following clause. It's often translated simply as "if", and it has overtones of "if `[VERB]`, then `[some other thing]`", or even " _only_ if `[VERB]`, then `[some other thing]`".

* * *

Please comment if the above does not fully address your questions, and I can
edit to update.
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answer