First game playing the budapest gambit

should have been a draw with 29. Rd1

he resigned and also he only had 14 seconds left, but your right.

it seems even move 31 wasn't too late to save the game with 31. Rd1 followed by Rc1

I think you missed 4. ... Bc5 attacking f2. If white defends f2 by playing 5. e3 then his bishop is cut off from f4. This is why white usually plays Bf4 before Nc3.

You note on move 12 that white has weak isolated doubled c pawns. Then just a couple moves later you undouble the pawns for him. And with somewhat of a risky manouver. What happens if 15. c4 threatening to trap your bishop with Kb2. If you respond 15. ... d5 this loses a pawn to 16. cxd5 Bxd5 17. Bxh7+ Kxh7 18. Rxd5.

And of course the result of the game was simply bad endgame play by white.

LOomis, i undoubled the pawns for the sake of the game.... no i guess, im still just one of those beginners who can only point andd say look! weak pawns! but can't do any thing about it. I still have lots of work to do...

31. Rd1+ wins the game for white

I honestly don't know what "for the sake of the game" means.

What to do about weak pawns? First step, let them be weak, don't let your opponent get rid of the weakness. Don't let them be exchanged or pushed. You've got a lock on c5 so they won't get pushed in this case. Don't play b5 or d5 and they won't get exchanged.

"Weak pawns are like a virus, their weakness spreads to other pieces making them weak as well."

In this case, the sad bishop on e3 has to guard the darn c4 pawn. The c4 pawn is making the e3 bishop weaker than it should be.

So, what should we do at move 15? Our bishop is already attacking the weak pawn at c4, no need to worry about him, we need to get our rooks involved. Rooks need open files. One idea is what you played, ... b5 because it will open files. But, it lets white exchange the weak pawn. An alternative is ... f5 with the threat of playing ... f4 and exchanging the f-pawn, creating open files for the rooks.

It may be that ... b5 is the right move since this opens files faster and the opponent's king is on that side of the board. The question is, do we want to play with a long term initiative -- pressure against the weak c4 pawn, slowly improving our pieces while our opponent's pieces always have to be able to defend the weakness -- or do we want to play for a dynamic tactical advantage -- rooks on open files near the opponent's king?

Since I can't calculate a clear advantage (of course, I'm not Kasparov) with ... b5, I would play the slower way, where I am more sure I am playing with an advantage.

thanks, lommis