After a disgusting little baby tilt (I was tired af and super groggy but decided to play bullet then rapid) I finally got my life together after almost quitting chess for the 69th time and had this very interesting end game.
What do you see as the biggest threat here? For me, it was Nc3. In fact, I thought Na2 was such a great move I spent a good amount of time trying to figure out how to stop Nc3, a crushing move that would hit my rook on d1, causing me to retreat the rook to b1, because if I played Rc1, black plays the winning move d2, hitting my rook and preparing to promote. In this position, white is totally losing. Even if I play RxNc3, the pawn promotes and I have to take with Bxd1, to which black quickly would take back with Rxd1, and from there I’m pretty much in a force mate pattern, in fact I think it’s mate in two.
As you can see, Nc3, if played, would have resulted in this:
There’s many possible variations of this, but ultimately if Nc3 is allowed to be played in this position, white should totally resign, because checkmate is inevitable.
Even if white plays it perfectly, white loses their bishop and is in a terrible position.
However, while keeping in mind to stop Nc3, I played Rc1, baiting the d2 pawn push to then play Rc2, attacking the knight and pawn, forcing black to either kick out the knight or promote the pawn. I knew no matter what black did, I would end up winning the Knight after trading my bishop for a pawn on d1, then rook takes. After a very tough end game position, I would walk away up a pawn.
I think the lesson that can be taken from this position is; noticing the squares your opponent is trying to go to can be more helpful than just attacking pieces, and playing to prevent those pieces from going to those squares may stop a dangerous attack!
After a disgusting little baby tilt (I was tired af and super groggy but decided to play bullet then rapid) I finally got my life together after almost quitting chess for the 69th time and had this very interesting end game.
What do you see as the biggest threat here? For me, it was Nc3. In fact, I thought Na2 was such a great move I spent a good amount of time trying to figure out how to stop Nc3, a crushing move that would hit my rook on d1, causing me to retreat the rook to b1, because if I played Rc1, black plays the winning move d2, hitting my rook and preparing to promote. In this position, white is totally losing. Even if I play RxNc3, the pawn promotes and I have to take with Bxd1, to which black quickly would take back with Rxd1, and from there I’m pretty much in a force mate pattern, in fact I think it’s mate in two.
As you can see, Nc3, if played, would have resulted in this:
There’s many possible variations of this, but ultimately if Nc3 is allowed to be played in this position, white should totally resign, because checkmate is inevitable.
Even if white plays it perfectly, white loses their bishop and is in a terrible position.
However, while keeping in mind to stop Nc3, I played Rc1, baiting the d2 pawn push to then play Rc2, attacking the knight and pawn, forcing black to either kick out the knight or promote the pawn. I knew no matter what black did, I would end up winning the Knight after trading my bishop for a pawn on d1, then rook takes. After a very tough end game position, I would walk away up a pawn.
I think the lesson that can be taken from this position is; noticing the squares your opponent is trying to go to can be more helpful than just attacking pieces, and playing to prevent those pieces from going to those squares may stop a dangerous attack!