I recently played in my state scholastic championships, and decided I'd post two or three of the games here. This is my second round game. I ended up a pawn down in the endgame, but managed to win it, preserving my chances to do well in the tournament.

Great pawn play at the end.  Just goes to show that positional factors can trump material, even with little material on the board.

Nice game and a good example of how the stronger player wins. Something went wrong in the opening since he was at least equal by move 15, but you kept it together and eventually class told. 

I wonder why he abandoned a promising middle game for an unpromising ending. If he had played 26...Rc8, he would have kept the pressure on you. But after 28...Nd5, you had what little advantage there was.

Even after you tossed the pawn, you always looked to be winning, mostly because you were working towards a goal, while Black was just making moves. I think these kind of endings are hard for the less experienced player. But I think he could have held his own if he had played 41...axb5 42. axb5, Rd5.

Determination and focus won this game for you

Thank you for the comments!

You're absolutely right, I did feel much more comfortable after he traded.

I didn't always feel winning in the game, but you may be right. You can probably understand how uncomfortable I was a pawn down in an endgame! What do you think of the line 41...axb5 42.axb5 Rd5 43.Bd6 with the idea of c6? 43...Rxg5 44.c6 seems to leave Black in trouble, so I think he has to choose a less materialistic move, but I can't find a way for him to defend - for example, 43...b6 44.c6 Rxd6 45.c7 and the pawn can't be stopped. Am I missing a defense? I can't be sure in a position like this.

Class players are often bad at endings. You can win (or draw) a lot of bad positions in the endgame. I think endgame practice/study goes a long way in practical results.

Yes, absolutely. I had one tournament in which I had three worse endgames and two drawn ones. I drew two of the worse ones and won both of the drawn ones. I usually prefer to play in middlegames, but I guess for some reason my endgame play was unusually good in that particular tournament.

Let's see the rest of the games!!