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Pawn Endgame

Pawn Endgame

TheNomNomFactor
| 3

In this position I was Black against an IM and I was fine with a draw during the game but was also looking for some small winning chances if they existed.  Obviously, the first thing you need to calculate is the king and pawn endgame.  Black has an outside b-passer which White will take, but only by spending valuable time with his king.  However, is this time enough for Black to infiltrate with the king and create winning chances if White goes wrong and maybe a draw with accurate play?  Or would White hold his pawns and win the resulting endgame?  The endgame is pure calculation and would be helpful if you want to improve just calculation.  King and pawn endgames are tricky!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I spent about 20 minutes calculating the consequences, and went into the complications.  I knew that if I played something like Kf7, the game would almost certainly be drawn without much thought required from either side.  However, after trusting in the calculation of my lines, I "yolo-ed" and went for it.

So yeah, it was a pretty painful loss, but it's not as painful if there's something to learn from it.  King and pawn endgames are always tricky and if you can't calculate everything and will not be playing for a better result than if you didn't go into the endgame (for example, I knew he had draws in the pawn endgame that weren't that hard to find and without going for the pawn endgame, it was probably drawn anyways).  Also, don't assume that a move will be played/is forced just because it looks natural.  h5! was better than the "natural" taking of a pawn with Kxb5, which was what I had mainly calculated.  This hole in my calculation ultimately led to my demise.
So yeah, hope you enjoyed this and don't make the same mistakes!