Some club players have developed a bad habit from their internet play, they don’t play out bad endgames. They don’t like endgames, they don’t study endgames; why should they suffer some pawn-down drudgery when they can just click a button and start a new game? However, especially at the faster time limits, fierce resistance is still worthwhile.
In the starting position for this game I am about to go two pawns down, but I have the bishop against the knight, a path for a king invasion, and I even find a way to make a passed pawn. The final winning idea for my opponent was counter-intuitive, unlikely to be found with the clock winding down.
Mike Smith(1944)-Alan Lasser(1939)
6/9/22
Westerly Chess Club
game/15
11...Kb3 +4.91/32 12.g5 12.Kf4 Kc4 13.Ke5 Bd8 14.h3 Bc7+ 15.Ke6 Kxd4 16.Ng5 +16.39 Stockfish 12...Kc4 13.Ke3 Kd5 14.Nf6+ Bxf6 No better is 14...Ke6 15.Nh7 Kf5 16.d5 cd 17.b5 Kg6 18.Kd4 Bd6 19.h4 Bg3 20.Nf8 Kh5 21.g6 Bh4 22.Kd5 +13.78 Stockfish 15.gxf6 Ke6 16.d5+ cxd5 17.b5
16.Nd6+?? +0.04/32 You'd expect that the knight must move forward to help the pawns advance; but no, in this position the knight can find splendid squares if it starts by moving backwards.
16.Nd2+ +3.53/28 16...Kd3 16...Kc3 17.Nf3 h5 Kd3 18.h5 c5 19.g6 hg 20.hg c4 21.g7 c3 22.g8Q c2 23.Qb3 Bc3 24.Ne1 17.Nb3 Kc4 18.Na5+ Kb5 19.Nb7 Kc4 20.Ke4 Bxd4 21.Na5+ Kc3 Unfortunately 21...Kc5 loses the bishop to 22.Nb3 22.Nxc6 The grand knight tour is over! The rest of this endgame is fairly straightforward because the Black king out of position and the Black pawn on h7 is on a vulnerable white square.. 22...Bh8 22...Bg7 23.h5 h6 24.g6 Kc4 25.Nd8 Bh8 26.Ne6 23.Nd8 23.h5 Kc4 24.Ne5 Kb5(24...Kc5 25.h6 Kb6 26.g6 hg 27.Ng6 Bf6 28.Kf5 Ba1 29.Ne5) 25.Kd5 Kb6 26.h6 Kb5 27.g6 hg 28.Ng6 Bf6 29.Ke6 Bc3 30.Ne5 Kb4 31.h7 Ka3 32.h8Q 23...Kc4 24.Ne6 Bc3 25.Nf8 h6 26.gxh6 Kc5 27.Kf5 Kd6 28.Ng6 Kd7 29.h7
25...Qc2 It looks like an endgame composition with more pieces than pawns and no good checks! It was a good time to agree to a draw, we didn't have enough left on our clocks to play further. Stockfish also thinks the position is equal.
½-½
