One careless move in the ending is enough to ruin all the hard work!

Hi everyone, i am currently participating in under-1800 rated tournament. Today there were two rounds and my both games went till endgames and both the endgames saw a couple of careless moves which were the only major mistakes in the games which decided the outcome.

In the first round, i had white pieces and after some brilliant series of moves, i traded down into a winning rook endgame. Then, I even managed to trade down into a won pawn ending by sacrificing a pawn. The pawn ending was a clear win which i had calculated till the end, before exchanging the rooks. But then i just made a couple of careless moves without even thinking and suddenly the game was a draw! I had never played such a terrible pawn ending in my life! My chess strength is my endgame play and i played so badly that i am still upset with myself. One careless move just cost me a win.

In the second game, i had black pieces and this time it was a four bishops endgame. The position was equal till the end and then I repeated the position twice and offered draw but my offer was declined. So, I avoided the repetition and exchanged one pair of bishops and I was immediately pressing for the win. But, I did not find a way to break my opponent's defenses and this time my opponent offered draw and I rejected! Finally, I exchanged the other pair of bishops and we were again left with a pawn ending and my opponent immediately blundered and lost a pawn and I promoted my extra pawn and won the game.

So, after two rounds I have 1.5 points. I blundered in the first game in a position that I would win even in my sleep! The luck was on my side in the second game and I got the full point!

I am tired right now after playing two long games. I will post both the games after some time.

Still agonizing about my first game!!!

It all takes that one move. I have a friend who drew when down five pawns. Keep on playing untill the end!

Losing a won ending is a bitter pill indeed; my sympathies...  But tomorrow is another day!

It is very irritating when this happens.

I just hung a piece in a game I am playing against a higher rated player. Up to that point, I was putting up a pretty good fight.

But, as Phili2000 said; tomorrow is another day.

Yeah, then yesterday i lost a drawn knight ending. The knight ending was a dead draw and my opponent offered a draw but i declined the draw offer because i saw some line where knight sac was possible. Then i sacrificed the knight and thought that i had a winning position when my opponent accepted the sac but then there was a knight fork 5 moves down the line which i had totally missed. Very annoyed with myself as of now.

I'd love to see the games.

Yes, I will post the endgames when I get some time.

It's like those famous positions that even masters blow.

Well, it wasn't super obvious

This is the knight endgame I was talking about.

Tricky endgame. I'm a bit curious in the rest of the game to see how that endgame position happened. I don't see how that ending could have been a draw a few moves earlier considering blacks active king.

Actually, I had 4  to 3 pawn majority on the kingside and black had a passer on the queenside. Both the kings were near the passer and both the knights were on the kingside. Then, the black king moved away to the kingside and white captured the passer but lost a pawn on the kingside.

My point is that if the position was something like the one below, then to me it looks like black is winning. I haven't double checked this analysis, so maybe white can draw somehow (although I haven't seen it).

This is the winning ending that was drawn due to my careless play.

instead of f6, Kd5 looks like a draw but not sure.

Kd5 h1=Q Ke6 and I dont know how black can capture the pawn.

I was not sure myself, but cheated by looking at a tablebase and got it confirmed that black is winning after Nxe8 (and the line you looked at ending with Ke6 is winning for black). I'll update my last diagram soon with a line with Kd5 instead of f6.

oh god! such a tricky position!

ok, so now the diagram has been updated. Black had to be careful to not give up a draw in the Kd5 line. I'm just wondering, what was blacks last move in your game in your diagram with the knight ending? Because if it was Kf3-g4, then black could have played like this instead.