draw from a winning position

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lekicars

Hello everybody !

I managed to  have a material advantage of two pawns in the ending. Those pawns were passed, so I was supposed to win this game, but ended with a draw.

Here is the game with my personnal annalysis. I would appriciate if someone could give me some advices to improve my game.

Here is my annalysis of the game :

 

          1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4:

This is the only opening i am comfortable with

          ...h6 4.O-O:

put my king in safety

          ...Nf6 5.d3:

opened the c1-h6 diagonal to my dark squared bishop while protecting my d pawn

          ...Bc5 6.a3

didn't have any real idea what to play here. I chose to prepare to push my b pawn to free the b2 square while bothering the black dark squared bishop

          ...d6 7.b4 Bb6 8.Bb2

just developing my bishop to a more active square

          ...Bg4 9.Nbd2

          developping my knight while giving support to my other knight, thus keeping my queen behind in case of an exchange

          ...Bd4 10.Bxd4

I preferred exchanging my bishop than puting my rook on a2 or b1

          ...Nxd4  11.h3

more pressure was added to my pinned knight, so I attacked the black bishop to force the exchange in the f3 square, thus freeing my queen from the pin

          ...Bh5 12.c3

          attacking the horse to force an exchange

          ...Nxf3+ 13.Nxf3

forced

          ...g5 14.d4

I had no idea here, so I tried to open the d file

          ...Qe7 15.dxe5

opening the d file

          ...Nxe4 16.exd6

I took the d pawn without any particular purpose. only after the game was over I've realised that the black last move was a blunder, i should have played Re1.

          ...Qxd6 17.Qxd6

Re1 is now too late because of f5. If I didn't take the queen now, black could casttle kingside. by exchanging queens I was hoping to expose black's king.

           ...Nxd6 18.Rfe1+

activating my rook with a gain of tempo

          ...Kf8 19.Ne5

My bishop was hanging and black threatened to ruin my kingside pawn structure by exchanging his bishop with my knight. 

          ...Bg6 20.Bd5

aiming to exchange my knight with his bishop, believing that bishops are stronger at ending plays.

          ...c6 21.Nxg6+

exchanging pieces with a gain of tempo while creating a weakness in black's pawn structure

          ...fxg6 22.Bb3

putting my bishop to safety

          ...Re8 23.Bc2

attacking black's weak pawn

          ...Kf7 24.g4

this pawn advance is supposed to forbid any black's pawn advance on the kingside

          ...Rxe1+ 25.Rxe1

forced

          ...Nb5 26.c4

This is the pawn advance I should have played earlier, but I didn't forsee the knight threat. I prefer the black's knight to take my a pawn rather than my c pawn, thus deacrinsing its activity on the board.

          ...Nxa3 27.Bb3

protecting my c pawn while threatening a discovered attack

          ???? b5 28.cxb5+

Here black was probably drunk ^^

I took the b pawn with gain of tempo, while threatening to take the c pawn and creating a passed pawn

          ...Kg7 29.bxc6

logic continuation

          ...Rc8 30.Ba4

protecting my passed pawn with my bishop while allowing to push my b pawn 

          ...Nc4 31.Re7+

putting my rook on the dangerous 7th rank, threatening the weak a pawn with gain of tempo

          ...Kf6 32.Rxa7

taking the pawn

          ...Nb6 33.b5

Not scared by the exchange of the black's knight with my bishop, because I am up in material. adding support to my passed pawn

          ...Ke5 34.Kg2

trying to activate my king

          ...Kd6 35.Bc2

threatening to take the black's weak pawn to shorten the path to my king to black's kingside pawns

          ...Rc7 36.Rxc7

accepting the rook exchange

          ...Kxc7 37.Kf3   Nd5 38.Ke4

pushing my king to black's kingside pawns

          ...Nc3+ 39.Ke5

I haven't seen this fork

          ...Nxb5 40.Ba4

protecting my passed pawn

          ...Nc3 41.Bc2

Didn't expect that knight move, controlling both a4 and b5 squares

          ...Kxc6 42.Kf6

advancing my king 

          ...Ne2 43.Kxg6

taking black's hanging pawns

          ...Nf4+ 44.Kxh6

I got surprised by this double attack

          ...Nxh3 45.f3

I also got surprised by the knight's control over the g5 square

          ...Kd5 46.Kg6 Ke5 47.Bd3

preparing to put my bishop to f1

          ...Kf4 48.Bf1

moving the black knight away

          ...Nf2 49.Be2

protecting my pawns

          ...Nh3 50.Bf1Nf2 51.Kh5 Nd1 52.Bg2 Nf2 1/2-1/2

As there was no way for me to chase black's protection over his last pawn, which I believed would be easy once my king reached black pawns, we have agreed to a draw

corum

I agree you should win. I think 34. Kg2 is a mistake. Just play Rb7 attacking the knight and after the knight moves push the pawn to b6.

By playing Kg2 - which I cannot see any purpose in - you gave the black king chance to get across to d6 so he can now meet Rb7 with Kc5.

 

You had another chance to win I think when you played 45. f3. You needed to shift the knight quickly to win his pawn. To do this you should play Be4+ followed by Bg2. f3 blocked your bishop off from the critical g2 square.

lekicars

about 34. Kg2, I knew that black's king would reach my passed pawns, so I thought it was a good idea to seek maximum activity for my king when his was trying go to the queenside