Knight and 2 pawns versus a rook in the endgame

Exchange sacrifices are always romantic. Especially when you attack the king or when you have big positional pressure in the middlegame. Example the pair of bishops in open positions have nearly enough compensation for a rook and knight.

Endgames are different cookies. Knights are much slower pieces then rooks, but there are good when centralized and support advanced pawns.

Yesterday I played a 15 10 minutes game against a strong Hungarian player. I made a mistake in the opening. I allowed him to build up a strong pressure on the a5-e1 diagonal in the Slav defense and I got behind in development. He could win a pawn but instead played an interesting sacrifice. He gave up his rook for a knight and 2 pawns. 

His knight became a very strong centralized knight. I activated one of my rooks, but I could play more active later to keep the activity. 

We got a critical situation with a pawn and a rook against the knight and 3 pawns which 2 were passed pawns. 

I needed to stop 1 pawn with the king and the other with the rook, which I failed because his king became active and helped the pawn. 

The critical decisions which I missed the timing of the king or the rook moves when to use the king to stop the pawns when to give that move to the rook to stop the other pawn or give checks. 

I wish you can learn from this and play better your endgames! 

I wish you enjoyed the game and gained some new ideas which you can use in your future games!

If you want to watch my next games with commentary LIVE, then please come to my channel at https://www.twitch.tv/attilaturzo Come and join to my discord server at https://discord.gg/gyYpQGY 

Have a wonderful day!

Attila