I had a good game versus the bot Miguel today but need some help in the endgame.

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Avatar of jamesthelorry

Okay so i'm a low rated player so my definition of a good game is very different to that of the many 1400 - 2000 players on this site so dont roast me to hard lol.  
I had an okay poition at the end with the queen against two rooks but felt completly lost and got utterly destroyed.  any tips in an endgame like this would be greatly appreciated.

Another thing worth mentioning is why was taking the knight  F6 with my bishop so bad? i thought doubling his pawns would create a weakness but my though process is clearly wrong here. 

Avatar of ScootyMcScrooty
As “one of those 1400-2000” people, here’s what I saw. I only did a quick run through, but hopefully O have some useful feedback. I recommend using the self analysis function to experiment with some of these ideas yourself to help out.

A few things stand out to me: position and development. You passed on several chances to capture the light squared bishop, and damage blacks structure in doing so. This would have prevented a safe queenside castles, and given you attacking chances. Then you gave you dark squared bishop for a pinned knight. This exchange opened the g file towards your king, and prematurely released the tension on the knight. Now... tactics. You AND Miguel (bot) missed tactics around the d5 pawn, because his dark square bishop has a “fossil” on you. Had Miguel seen it the position is two pawns up for black and winning. Again, tactics. In the endgame you had reached a position that’s better for white, but probably a draw with best play. Positions like that you must, must, must, try your hardest to grind for wins, because holding slightly worse draws is grueling. Within that, just be careful not to blunder your queen. You walked right into it, when capturing with the queen was a fine.

Overall, an excellent game for your skill level, but it was tragically ended by a blunder. Best of luck improving!
Avatar of Laskersnephew

For a relatively inexperienced player you played quite well. You made a lot of sensible moves and got all the way to a very drawish endgame. Then you made that one move (34.Kxh4??) and it was all over. Chess is the cruelest game, because one bad move can erase 40 good ones. But you have nothing to be ashamed of and you learned a new tactical trick

 

Avatar of zachzwang
I finally beat Miguel today after a month of trying.  I’m not particularly good at the game (and nearly blew it at the end) but hopefully this is helpful.
 

 

Avatar of magipi

Tip: don't hang your queen. You did, so you lost.

Avatar of Made_in_Shoreditch
magipi wrote:

Tip: don't hang your queen. You did, so you lost.

For sure 34.Kxh4 sealed White's fate but the Queen was never hanging just pinned. So the 'Top Tip' is to look out for pins, forks, skewers and x-ray attacks especially when you're in a Q vs RR endgame.

To play this endgame out better much depends on the Rooks allow. Play the game out starting at 34.Qxh4 then advance the pawns and the king when allowed and the Queen is free from harassment by the Rooks, at some point the Rooks must be sacrificed or another Queen appears on the board. Again if the rooks allow it the c3-h8 diagonal would be a good hang out for your Queen.

Avatar of efintushel