Need Help Seeing Who's In The Winning Position...

Hi,

I recently played in a tournament and the endgame of one of my games looked like it was a draw, so when he offered a draw I accepted it. I am very curious if I shouldeve accepted the draw. I am looking for some preferances of who is in a winning position or if it is a draw. I think it ended like this:

At first, I thought black was ahead because of the passed a pawn.  After I played it out a few times, I realized that white can get a pretty good game here.  Here's a continuation I came up with that would favor black. But you were probably right to take the draw.

At the end of this variation, you can see that it is difficult for white to advance his pawns up the board any further, and black's king will help the a pawn advance.  This is the third variation I came up with - in the first two, white won!

Looks like a draw.  White can win the h pawn and coordinate, so it shoudln't really be a problem.

h4 is a fine move by white, but gxh is the worst way for black to deal with it (activating white's pieces and weakening his pawns all in one move).  Black would play h6 instead and white would play Rc5.

Also possible on h4 is g5 because if white takes you get c3 (two passers) and has the benefit of not being blockaded on a dark square (e.g. when h6 instead of g4 white can trade and play g4 at some point making black's g5 pawn an immobile target).

Well, we disagree on the assessment.  White has too many holes to cover to be effective in the current position, regardless of the play.  To use your continuation, after Rc5 black plays a4, white plays Ra5 to catch it, Nxc6 Rxa4 and Nxe5, creating another passer with the c pawn.  So I think that is not the best play for white.

Then what about 1. h4 h6 2. gxf5 gxf5 What will be the best move?

I'm thinking maybe f3, trying to free the bishop to go guard a1 if needed.

Then 1. f3 Na6 with plan of next move Nb4, or simply a4. I trying to kill c6 and e5, can you block that plan? Or maybe you have some counter?

1. f3 Na6  2. Ra4 and white is at least even if not winning.

Black can only hold onto the a pawn by attacking white's c pawn with the knight.

I disagree.

1. f3 Na6 2. Ra4 Nb4

and what is White continuation? Taking pawn on a5?

3. Rxa5 Nxc6 4. Kf1 (for example) Kc7 and soon kNight will go on d5, where it will control center and c7 point.

@utarefson - I wasn't thinking ahead enough, but I think white is drawing after 1. f3 Na6 2. Ra4 Nb4 3. Rxa5 Nxc6 4. Rc5 Kd7.  Looks equal.

You can continue your argument for black here if you want.  But if you decide the position is equal, I would like you to go back to my first variation and see if you think black is winning there, or if you can come up with a winning or drawing response for white.

@zirtoc

Ok. Let's play this variation to the end. I can not see if it will be draw or not. But i can see that Bishop is bad because of e5 pawn, and at the same time kNight is strong on d5.

So, if you could play as White, when i would play as Black, it would be great.

Ok, i will go to first variation and think.

Why not 7. ... Rb5 with pawn c5 next? Black seems stronger.

I've got to go meet my parents now.  I will concede that black has a slight edge if you concede that the position is unclear.  I'll check out your thoughts on my variation when I get home tonight.  Peace.

I think the operative element here is "tournament."  Since there is no obvious forced victory for either side, what to do depends on how much risk you are willing to take and that might well depend on where you stand in the tournament with your other games.

Im glad you guys are having fun analysing it!

Im really sorry to say that its black to move, though...I forgot to click that...Sorry guys  I dont think it would make that big of a diference, though. Would it?

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I am greatly appreciated at the time strong chess player have put into anyalysing this game to help me get better. Thanks utarefsen and zirtoc!

@Trapper4

Black surely should try to achieve victory then.