Just just your king, rook, and knight to close in on him
How would you address a drawn out game.
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Apr 30, 2015
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#3
Damiano's Defense, usually a very quick win for White! 3. Nxe5 fxe5?? 4. Qh5+ and Black is in serious trouble already.
As for the ending, you know how to win with a king and rook only, right? Well, just forget about those two extra pieces if they're confusing you, and use only your king and rook, but watch out for a stalemate situation that most likely would arise from your bishop covering a square the black king would need to use.
One winning plan might be found at 41...Ke4. While trying to weave a White mating net is possible, it would probably take some serious thought so a simpler way is to eliminate Black's pawns and try for White R, p, K vs Black King. Then if the R & K vs K mate procedure is unfamiliar just promote the pawn for Q & R mate.
Luckily at 41...Ke4 there seems to be a good opportunity. First sac the N on d5, Black King takes N but can't save the g pawn with White Rg7. Then concentrate on the remaining Black epawn. Black's probably going to want to put it on e4 (if Black leaves pawn on dark square just sac the B) so if you want to keep your pawn must play Bc1..e3, then its your King that's going to really help capture the epawn by getting it to f4 using zugzwang, then R takes pawn.
I didn't bother to calculate it out but the plan looks doable. Though after the N sac and g pawn take, a straight R & K mate would seem quicker.
The K & R mate depends on your King, technique is to cut off opponent King toward edge rank or file with Rook and King (march your King toward opponent King as much as possible then bring Rook next to your King to limit opponent King escapes). Goal is opponent King on edge with Rook on next rank or file so that opponent King can't escape rank or file. Then aim for your King to be opposite opponent King then drop Rook to edge rank or file for mate. I'm guessing that there's probably a video on this site or out there somewhere that shows the technique.
Your mistake was you never got your king involved. Your king is very powerful in the endgame (an active king is generally considered to be worth 4 pts). If you move your king up in support the win would be very easy. I recommend you to look at some endgame theory to see how to activate and use your king.
At the end you had Bishop+Knight+Rook against nothing. It is known that it is very hard to checkmate a king with king, bishop and knight (if you replace king with rook it doesn't get much easier). It is also known that king and rook does win quite easily against king (if you don't know how you need to look it up). So the easiest way to win (you can even premove the moves to save time) is to move your bishop and knight out of the way (as far away as possible) and get your king and rook in to win.
Thanks for all the advice. I had a very short amount of time at the end after the pawns were dealt with. I guess I should have sacrificed the knight or bishop to simply the endgame. I was reluctant to give up material at the end. Thanks for all the tips, they are much better ideas than what I should have come up with!
I agreed with sqod. Learning to mate with king and rook is a fun exercize you should always know. If you end up with more pieces, just get rid of them if they confuse you and mate with king and rook. As he said, watch out for stalemates that arise because of the bishop.
I quite enjoy this site, but my chess is not at a very high level. Given the fact that I am still learning, but do not have enough time to play long games I usually play blitz. I ran into a strange game where my opponent decided to complicate the ending to gain the time advantage. Is there Another way I should have approached this ending. Thanks! Please forgive my large blunders. Any criticism is appreciated!