How a single pawn defeated an army.

This is a game I played in a tournament on another site.  In this game I really fought hard for the win, calculating some tough variations.  I made use of the analysis board often in this game.  This game is an example of how valuable a single pawn can be.  Please comment and critique.

Best regards,

Okolo

Nice game.  I can't resist the temptation to post my favorite bit of pawn wizardry, Canal-Capablanca 1929.  Not too flashy, but a pleasure to analyze, and it's really a pleasure to see how capablanca makes use of all of his pawns.  The middlegame isn't quite as good as the endgame, but it's not exactly shabby either!

Hi,

Your first mistake was not playing 3. Nxe5, because if he takes the knight, you win a rook, or the game.  Look up Damiano's Defense, and you'll see what i mean.

another thing, you say that 8. Be3 was better than Bd2 because it "makes no sense defending the knight when the queen cannot capture the knight without loss."  Defending the knight isn't the issue at hand: breaking the pin is. This would give your knight more mobility, and would threated with a discovered attack.  Besides, the pawn on d4 didn't need any more defenders at that point.

but other than that, nice job pushing that pawn up!

"The herioc pawn get's the final honour of killing the King. If Black played 22...Ke7 23 d8=q (Ke6 or e7) 24 Qd5#"

You have to mean Qad5#

As was said above, you have an easy game after 3. Nxe5. Take a look at what happens if the knight gets captured...

As a I have been saying in previous post, that goes to show the power of the passed pawn.

Very interesting.  I'll have to explore that one.

Ditto. For example:

Great game.  I have always liked the endgame.  It's kind of exhilirating, hanging on the edge of zuzwang and pulling it through.  Thanks for sharing.

I think this is how the game should go after the knight capture but Qe7 gain back the pawn but white still have an advantage.

Wow.  I would have been afraid to sac a knight so early.  But now I know what to do next time.  Thanks.

Wow, i envy your strategic analysis of the game, i hope i can become as good as all of you one day. :O

Oh yeah, and @phailsguared why doesnt black on 6... Kg6 move the d7 pawn two squares down? 

You don't have to be so impressed, this is a pretty famous line so we just know about the knight sacrifice so we don't have to analyse the whole thing. This is how the game should go if your opponent knows about the trap with the knight: