Swindling a 1900

Knowing stuff is good. Remembering that a Rook pawn and Bishop is of the wrong colour is a draw, allowed me to save a half point:

Not sure myself but I think that white could have won if he didnt sack the pawn.

he would have won if he didn't do e4

How? The black bishop stays on the h1-a8 diagonal with no other purpose but to sac itself on the pawn when it dares to go to e4. Meanwhile the lone king just goes back and forth between h8 and g7. It can't be driven out of the corner. Barring a brain dead blunder the black bishop can't be driven off the h1-a8 diagonal.

*Edit* WAIT A MINUTE. I just looked at it again... sorry I was thinking they were bishops of opposite color, too... which they are not...

Ya know... I think you guys are right! I think White did have a win... or at least there's some game left.

*Edit 2* Okay... back to thinking it's a draw... How does White push the pawn past e4? He can get his bishop to e4 (driving the black bishop away), but then the Bishop is blocking the pawn... when he moves the bishop, black goes back to guarding.

No, moves like 6...Ba8 are losing... Black has to play, he can't just switch off his brain... but after 6.Kd4 Bf3 for instance.

Thank you for your input, guys.

While I was playing this, I was in no doubt that White could escort that pawn, but now I'm not so sure.... Ba8 is definitely bad, I think.

The point of the post was that I managed a draw because I remembered a technicality which my opponent failed to consider.

Now I'm almost sorry to have lost out on a far more interesting and instructive ending, lol. (well, not really!)

EDIT: Scratch this, I messed up. In the end Bh5-g4-d7 wins for White.

As long as Black doesn't walk his Bishop into a corner, he should be OK. After White puts the Bishop on e4, Black needs to be able to move the Bishop to a square from where it can go either to the h1-a8 or b1-h7 diagonals in one move. If the White Bishop takes one diagonal, Black takes the other diagonal. White has some tricks to get a bit further, but Black should be able to win the h7 pawn and then help with the King. For example:

I found an online tablebase, but the position was not found. Anyone have a suggestion for a endgame tablebase to use.

http://www.k4it.de/index.php?topic=egtb&lang=en

Nice forum.  Thank you for all who contributed.

I was surprised to find that the fatal error in my line earlier is very late. Here's the correct line from where I messed up - Nalimov has a nice draw after White's 17th.