Thinking Techniques

I am drawn to attack the pawn at f2. 

Correct, but before getting there, you need to draw some conclusions about the position.

White has an extra pawn to Blacks Bishop. Black is up 2 pawns in material. White's Rook can create problems. The Kings will have to get involved. If the Rooks are traded without creating a passed pawn this will be a draw.

How about that?

f2, then g3, then h4.

My entire thought process:

1) HIT F2 WITH THE MIGHT OF A THOUSAND SUNS
2) DON'T fall for 1...Rb2 2. Rf8 Kg4?? 3. Rf4#. Don't.
3) Hey, my bishop's the wrong colour for h1 - don't let him trade rooks too easily, nor let white get my g6-pawn too easily.
4) HIT F2 WITH THE MIGHT OF TEN THOUSAND SUNS

Don't trade the g-pawn.

Get the rook behind the black king.

Don't believe in the current weakness of f2, because it can be defended easily from f8 and g2.

1.. Rb2 2.Rf8+ Ke6 3.Rf3 and white has an easy job defending its pawns.

Try to get to the position in the diagram, starting with for instance 1... Rb6 2.Rf8+ Ke4 3.Re8+ Kd3 4.Rf8 Re6 5.Rf7

Add the bishop to the attack on f2 and play next Re2. This way is point f2 overloaded and has white to create a weakness.

Endgame strategy is generally reduced to two things:

1.  Pawn Promotion.
2.  Finding ways to attack the oppponents position.
In endgames the mateial is greatly reduced, which makes is very difficult to attack the opposing King, so in most cases when we discuss objects of attack we are talking about pawns and pawn structures.
We also need to keep in mind:
1.  Improving our own structure.
2.  Blockading passed pawns.

What observations can we make regarding Black's long-term strategy to win this game?

The h1 square is the wrong color for Black's bishop, which will affect how we carry out any exchanges.

Black cannot even exchange rooks here, as White could quickly play f2-f3 followed by g3-g4 exchanging Black's g-pawn.

The f2 pawn is the only vulnerable point in White's camp.

Creation of a passed pawn for Black is impossible, unless he can somehow win the white pawns for free.

The only way to force a change in the pawn structure is to advance ...g6-g5, this does not seem helpful to Black as after White captures hxg5 Black is left only with his (wrong) rook's pawn. Furthermore this altering of the structure does not yield any weakening of White's structure.

The conclusion is that we cannot create a passed pawn by changing the structure. Therefore we MUST attack the f2-pawn as it is the only possible idea here.

If the f2-pawn moves to f3 maybe we can attack the g3-pawn and force it to move also, then maybe we gain some chances against the white king and create some routes of infiltration for the black king.

Maybe - but we must attack f2, that much is clear.

Note that despite the extra piece, it seems unlikely that we can crash through on f2 since it will be difficult to attack it enough times.

Perhaps the only possible chance would be a large scale sacrifice/exchange

on f2 (at the right moment) leaving a winning king and pawn endgame. This actually occurred in the game, although White could have avoided it with correct play.

We can jump ahead to the moment when this occurred

Here's my idea anyway, which is to go to the 2nd rank.

I guess white can try an early f3 which I didn't look at (and avoid trading rooks), but I think it's roughly the same idea.  The black rook doing work from the side, and the king comes to help.

1...Bxf2, great test position, I didn't even consider the pawn endgame!

I'm familiar with that structure type after 3...gf too.  Getting this wrong will help me remember to look for these kinds of possibilities.  Good post, thanks.

shell_knight,

Thanks for putting the time, and effort in!  Keep up the good work!