Forums

Minor piece endgame

Sort:
odinspirit

Notwithstanding that I was at one point up a bishop for a pawn in this game until the horrible blunder at 20..Ne4??, I ended up in a minor peice endgame with my opponent having a decided advantage. I was thinking that I could somehow preserve a draw if i played it right. (Was I out of my mind even thinking this?)

I believe my second terrible blunder was at 38..Bd5 where this diagram starts. Now my reasoning for this move was kind of a rote idea in "Ahh..one should use minor piece to block passed pawn" Just kind of implememting a chess concept rather than executing any sort of plan.

Am I correct in thinking that 38..Be6 would have made all the differnce in the world? For it prevents(at least in the short term) the Knight from getting to c5.

It seems to me once the horse got to c5 my game was shot. I couldn't believe how much the knight kicked my behind being on that square.

So my questions are is 38..Be6 the correct move and was there any way of saving this game once Nc5 happened?

odinspirit
tonydal wrote:

Not likely. 38... Be6 is a better try, but you're still two (good) pawns down. White can play 39 Ke2 and then you have to give ground (allowing either 40 Nd7 or 40 Nf7).

Still, I believe your opponent made a mistake with 32 Kf2 (I think he should've played 32 Kd2 followed by Nd3-c5).  Because you had 33... b4, and White will be hard-pressed to stop the passed pawn (34 Nxa4 ba 35 Nc3+ Kd3 36 Ne2 Kd2 for example).


Darn it!

Of course! 33...b4!  *smacks head*

Geez..never saw it. I think I was just so focused on being defensive that being able to possibly win wasn't even in my head at that point.

Oh well. That's why they say you learn much more from your losses. Just got to keep studying.

Thanks for the analysis tonydal. I appreciate it. Laughing

odinspirit
RainbowRising wrote:

Why did black play 9...Bf5 when he could have played Bxc3+?


Ohhh yeah. Another missed opportunity.

So you're saying 9...Bxc3+ 10. bxc3 Qxc3+ 11. Kf1 and black wins a pawn and messes up white's chance to castle?

I'm still in that stage where I come upon middlegame positions where I haven't a clue what to do next. The reasoning behind 9...Bf5 I suppose was developing a piece, exerting more control over e4, preparing to castle long should I choose that.

I obviously didn't look hard enough for a weakness in my opponents position. Thanks for pointing that out RainbowRising.