Forgive my ignorance if I've made any mistakes posting this. It's my first time. I've always read about the power of passed pawns and I finally found that out myself in this game. I'm sure that I made a lot of dumb moves throughout the game.

Thanks a lot!

en passant?

the "power of a passed pawn" is usually a reference to the french term called "en passant"...when an opposing pawn has moved two spaces on the opening move and your pawn can move into the space one behind it diagonally to capture it...is that what you're talking about? i didn't see it in any of the moves in this game but i went through it very quickly

No, I'm sorry.

I just meant that a passed pawn can be very valuable in a game. I apolgize.

You're opponent should've marched his king towards your pawn starting with 37...Kf7 then Ke7, etc.  That at least would've gotten rid of the passed pawn.

Thanks for the input!

That move does make more sense.

Is there anything I should have done differently?

I feel as if I missed a few moves.

move 21. dxc6 (en passant) seems very good to me.

You used the term "passed pawn" correctly, a pawn that has no opposing pawns blocking its progess, either directly in front or on neighboring files.

12 cxb5 was better.  Your c pawn was doubled and the exchange leaves his queenside pawns shattered.  Permitting him to push it messed up your queenside.

He did straighten things out for you with 15 ...NxNd5 but he really didn't have to do that, although his 15...Nxe5 is problematic if 16 Bxh6. His main problem is his bishop on e7.  You could have done the endgame more efficiently.  Look it over and I am sure you can see things.   All in all, well played and an interesting game.

I'm definitely going to look over suggestions you made for both sides. I really appreciate it.

I do have a tendency of prolonging endgames.

I didn't know that " power of a passed pawn" referred to en passant.

Thanks again!

Escapest_Pawn wrote:

12 cxb5 was better.  Your c pawn was doubled and the exchange leaves his queenside pawns shattered.  Permitting him to push it messed up your queenside.

 If I remember correctly, I was hoping that he'd capture the pawn on c4 and I would recapture with my queen.

My reasoning was that I would be able to get my queen into play and threaten his Knight on c6.

Also, I didn't want to open up a file for his rook.

"The power of a passed pawn" doesn't refer to en passant. It simply means no opposing pawn can contest that pawns progression towards queening.

Yea, that was my understanding. Someone above mentioned en passant so I was a bit confused.

Thanks.

Thanks a lot for the input!

This is really helping me look at the chess in a different way.

I think you could have won a pawn with 12. cxb5 12... axb5 13. Qxb5 and also threaten his knight.

most of the time whenever I get a passed pawn promoted it's normally a win-win situation..checkmate soon follows..but then again, I'm not that great of a player