Another one that got away #14

Pretty sure I had this game won as black. It was a 15/10 game against an a similar rated opponent. I don't think I missed much until the end game where I fell apart and handed victory to white.

Can anyone make any suggestions at the point I had a rook and a pawn against 3 pawns please? It was a horrible one to lose

Many thanks as always....

Dan

I feel I have the upper hand now even though material is equal...  6 black pawns v 5 white pawns ??
I was 36. ... e5 (apart from a shedload of other earlier differences).
39. .... grrrr, ... Qd7
I will do the game properly, later.

Since the question is Rook v 2 pawns. 57. ...  Okay.  White has one plan. Queen a pawn.  The pawns cannot advance without the support of the king.  So which white pawn is furthest from the king, it is the b-pawn.
Attack it straight away 57. .... Rb7 58. b4 Kf7 (you want Ke5/Kd5).
If the white king goes to the c-file when you have say Kd6, then the f-pawn is gone to the rook! and the g-pawn queens. You get your king over to the two pawns.

64. ... Re8 You defend the last rank (having got into this mess). As white has to waste moves between his two pawns while the g-pawn queens.
I guess you end up with a black queen, a white pawn on the 7th and black to move.
That is then a well known win, where you check the king/attack the pawn until the king has to step in front of the pawn, move your king one square closer, repeat from check/attack with queen.

Thanks Darren, first part makes sense 

I need to see the second part in action so will go over this in more detail tomorrow.

42.Rg4 you have a pin on the Rf4. Looks like d5 is forced to defend the rook with the Qc4, then you have e5 which I think should win for you despite d6+ Kh7 d7 stuff.

Cheers Andy, I think I missed a few tactics in this game especially one at move ...48

Playing some awful stuff right now.... think I need a break. It's as if every game is my first and I know nothing!

5. ... Nc6 I am old so I don't block my c-pawn in queen pawn openings. There is nothing wrong with it however.
6. ... h6 When can you do this, when you have e6 as white does not Nf5
Now having won the bishop pair I was expecting 10. e4 or 0-0
10. Ne5 It threaten black with doubled c-pawns but Dan has seen better, it is a pawn dropper
12. ... Qxe5 and against me white can resign. I am going to castle (long?), centralise my rooks, swap rooks, queen e-pawns and "d" for "c" pawn. Bishop v Knight wing pawns and plus one pawn it is over.

16. ... Oh err ... Qe5!!
17. a4 white has king in centre he does not have f4
I was expecting 17. Rfe1 c6 18. f4 Qb8
17.  ... 0-0, relief.
18. ... Rab8, the idea actually works I was scared of Nc6 (as potential fork) so my move was ... c5
We get to the idea of 18. with 21. ... b5
At 23. ... the idea of big wood chop above is gone.
Black has two plays here, (a) ... Qc7 and attack the two *hanging pawns* there is a good chance
white will end up with an isolated pawn the bishop can attack. Dan goes for the attacking option.
Dan has a habit of going from really strong to really weak.
24. ... Qe4, I would not be keen on getting off the h2-b8 *diagonal* (Qc7 covers a5) but Dan is on a roll here.
25. ... Rfd8!
29. h3 and black advantage is going away fast.
34. ... Qxh2 back to the diagonal that is so vital for black.
36. ... Qh5!, Stronger than e5 (I would have pawn pushed)
The rook is attacking the queen, but the queen protects the rook via an ... f6 if needed.
37. ... f5?!, now ... e5 is better as d5 is ultimately met with Rxd5+ and then save the hanging rook.
39. ... h5??
Too impatient. The h-pawn wins the game but we have one of those AND moves.
... Qd7 defends the pawn, attacks the king, threatens g5, e5.
45. ... Qg6, yeah the queen has to help h5,e6,e8
48. d5?? OMG bonus points for e6xd5+ ; Re4 QxRe4+
Do I get double bonus points for 49. ... exd5+

So we get to 57. ... Kh7?
It is simply 57. ... Rb7 58. b4 Kf7
Where white cannot move either "b" or "c" pawn due to Rook takes b-pawn.
White has to support with say Kc4 but on the c-file the rook can take the f-pawn
and get behind the pawns.
There are enough moves for black to play Kg8-c8

64. ... Re8 65. Kd7 Ra8 66. c7 g5 67. c8 RxQc8 68. KxQc8 g4 69. b4 g3
Black wins. You can move b4 earlier (intending c7 b8) but it makes no difference. 

Dan, you are a great player, but endgames are just not your strength. You keep hanging pawns... and simply blundering in them. I recommend

The Amateur's Mind and

Silman's Complete Endgame Course

BOTH BY IM JEREMY SILMAN. Also watch out for those pawns. Another tip: Your king was heading the wrong way. GO TOWARDS HIS PASSED PAWNS. Also, form a strategy IN ALL PARTS OF THE GAME, ESPECAILLY the endgame.

Thanks James, very good of you to post again. You say the game will win itself but this is where I fall down a lot of the time, I am not very good at killing games off. My end games are poor and need work....not sure how to work at them other than play games, lose them and ask for help here.

My tactics aren't great either, I miss mates in 2 and 3 so keep trying them out on another site. You say I was getting fancy but in all honesty I was just lost for ideas how to win and that seemed the best way of winning.... promoting the pawn by getting the king in front of my pawn, take the blocking white pawn with my king and then progress down the h file while my rook stops the white pawns.... obviously it didn't pan out.

Darren and HT, thanks ever so much for all that work and effort - both of you. I need to take time out to go though it all step by step and will reply thereafter with the comments your posts deserve.... funnily enough HT, you mention the book that Rat told me about and it's one that I own and am struggling through. It's kind that you say I am a good player but really I am not,,, this forum is littered with only a handful of the losing tripe I produce yet I really want to get better so feel this place is probably better for me than reading any book or watching any video as the feedback relates to MY games and my thought processes. Thanks again, EVERYONE for the positive feedback. 

Trust me, you are. You have iron hard ability to slowly get an advantage, but have a hard time using it

An army can't succeed if they aren't working together, and following the same plan.

TRY to find the best place for a peice on the 1st move, not the second.

TRY to keep one iron hard strategy

Watch out for those endgames.

Other than that, you are an amazing player.

Here, the black pieces argue with themselves, not knowing where the best place is. FIND THE BEST PLACE AND KEEP IT THERE.

JamesColeman's comments are good. I think you need to get your king close to the centre. Taking with the rook doesn't help. And then you actually move the king to the edge with Kh7. I know you can see this now. 

The interesting thing - and the thing you really need to solve - is why you couldn't see this in the game. We all miss things at different levels. But having seen quite a few of your games and knowing a little but about your chess strength, this really is an endgame that should win itself. Maybe read a book on endgames?

By the way, the first thing I see in this key position is the opportunity to queen your g pawn because the black king is cut off. It takes 12 moves. Can your opponent hurt you in 12 moves? Sadly yes, as show below:

So having rejected that I think that I have to get my king in the middle and to stop those two pawns.

Rat, yes you get the bonus points for seeing the tactic (twice!)

So your method is to attack the b pawn with Rb7 and then if b4 ...Kf7 and a slow shuffle towards the centre. I get this but is it not abandoning my only pawn, what am I moving my king to the centre for? Is it because the rook cannot do the job of stopping the white connected pawns on it's own?

Tomato goes for an immediate Kf8 at move 57 to go over and attack the pawns, when the white king tries to help, my rook is already in position to take the hanging white f pawn. This is quite a nifty move!

My point in playing g6 was I thought I would have to get this pawn promoted to win and so I just started him on his journey. Perhaps it is a case of doing this at the end once the dangers are eliminated. As I said before I thought my king and pawn could promote, take the white pawn along the way and the rook could stand on guard to prevent the white pawns from getting close to queening. I am starting to see that the king needs to abandon the pawn and help attack first.

Thanks for all those variations Tomato. Looks a lot simpler on your board. 

Steve in your example I see you take the queen with the king to get the king nearer to the centre saving a move. I guess I took with the rook because I can see a pawn to attack on the same file even though I now know that the rook needs to attack the b pawn. 

Sorry if this seems trivial for you guys, I really need to get to grips with end games, nobody has ever sat down and explained anything to me, and I am struggling a bit with my end game book at present. I think the best thing to do is load up some old games I lost from a winning end game position....and play them against the computer until I can win.

Darren :-

6. ... h6 When can you do this, when you have e6 as white does not Nf5 - sorry mate, I just don't get this, re-read it a few times and maybe I am being daft!

10. Ne5 It threaten black with doubled c-pawns but Dan has seen better, it is a pawn dropper - aha a good move then!
12. ... Qxe5 and against me white can resign. I am going to castle (long?), centralise my rooks, swap rooks, queen e-pawns and "d" for "c" pawn. Bishop v Knight wing pawns and plus one pawn it is over. I admire the way you simplify the general game plan but you know I can't win with a one pawn advantage hahaha!

17. a4 white has king in centre he does not have f4 - again this one was lost on me mate!

18. ... Rab8, the idea actually works I was scared of Nc6 (as potential fork) so my move was ... c5

- I agree with your c5, my rook move doesn't do anything

At 23. ... 
Black has two plays here, (a) ... Qc7 and attack the two *hanging pawns* there is a good chance
white will end up with an isolated pawn the bishop can attack. Dan goes for the attacking option.
Dan has a habit of going from really strong to really weak - you are not wrong, 23...Bc6 was trying to line up bishop and queen on the same diagonal, a really obvious plan... but I didn't see better! My bishop is blocked so moving to a diagonal that can open with one attacking pawn move looked ok. Computer says move the rook to c8 similar to your idea of attacking weak pawns with two rooks behind rather than queen and rook. Nice little idea. Must remember it, thanks.

36. ... Qh5!, Stronger than e5 (I would have pawn pushed) - as usual I found this move on the next turn!!

37. ... f5?!, now ... e5 is better as d5 is ultimately met with Rxd5+ and then save the hanging rook - do you know I just did not see that e5 was a good move, if white takes... his king is on an open file and as you say if he plays d5 I have e4 attacking the rook and then your Rxd5+... brilliant!

39. ... h5??
Too impatient. The h-pawn wins the game but we have one of those AND moves.
... Qd7 defends the pawn, attacks the king, threatens g5, e5 - yes, defend first do the "easy bit" later! haha... although not so easy for me as we found out.

Thanks for your feedback, I learned some useful things there mate.

It might be useful to first get a general feel for the endgame before going deep into the weeds of technical endgame study.  Grab 20 random games from the old masters (Capablanca, Rubinstein and Tarrasch come to mind) and play through some endgames.  You don’t need to analyze every move or even understand them.  Just play through the moves and get a sense of how the endgame flows.  Do this 20 times and you’ll start to know, if not exactly what to do, then what you should be doing in general.  This should make future endgame study more fruitful.

After every game, try to summarize why the winner won.  Use words.  “White’s Rook cut off the Black King, which meant Black couldn’t stop White’s King from shepherding his pawn to the promotion square.”  If you can put the general idea in words, then you know you understand it and can apply it.

6. ... h6 When can you do this, when you have e6 as white does not Nf5 - sorry mate, I just don't get this, re-read it a few times and maybe I am being daft!
In a lot of your as black e4 e5 games you play ... h6 when it is not safe.
It is rock solid if your pawn is on e6.
17. a4 white has [black] king in centre [but] he does not have f4 [due to e3 exposed, should play Re1]
Note Re1 threatens f4 and then Nxc7. 17 a4 gives that up.
36. ... Qh5! was better than the 36. ... e5 I would have played.