I deliberately moved the diagram to that spot cause I immediately realized trading rooks was bad news bears. As for the bishop exchanging early, I don't really know. But you're right - why give away an advantageous situation for free?

I actually looked at which pawn to capture on 18. and I have no idea why I picked f6 as by looking at the board d6 makes intuitively way more sense.

Am I right in thinking I'm pretty far behind in the diagram with 1 rook each?

Nope. Houdini evaluates it as -0.2, which is pretty close to a draw. My first couple of moves are correct according to Houdini, but it doesn't like Rf5 for black and prefers other moves by small fractions. Regardless, if you start Kf1 followed by Rd4 you are not dead.

13. Bg5 is a nice find. I was hoping you'd see it. This move is often good enough to win games against similar strength players.

Better players might feel otherwise but as a noob, I found/find rook+pawn endgames excruciatingly complex and difficult to find an edge in. And it seems like everyone rated similar to me just mops up all my pawns somehow and I'm stagnant. I think creativity goes out the window and it's all about who can be more efficient at that point.

Chess.com had a mentor setting where you can work on these types of endgame puzzles. I used to do these a lot (unlimited) then they switched to 1 per day. Everything about that site is geared toward getting your money. Kinda frustrating but I guess I get it.

Rook and pawn endgames are definitely EXTREMELY complex. Step one is to just try to keep your rook more active than your opponent's rook, and of course keep an eye out for tactical shots, but beyond that... well I'm not the person to ask. I'm not great (or really even "good") at them either.

Well I woke up this morning pretty hungover, dreaming about stupid chess (legitimately ) so I decided to play a game:

http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game...r.php?id=90402

It was probably my most fun game, even though I made quite a few really really bad mistakes. I know I missed at least 2 mates in one (lol at playing 26...Qb4+ after not playing 25...Qb4# wtf) and played my worst move of my life with 28...Rd2+. I was pretty preoccupied with his Qg7# and let it get to me. I only had 4 minutes left when I played 34...Re8 - I was sure I was going to run out of time. 30 0 and won with 6.9 seconds left lol.

A few things I noticed:

1. I'm terrible at finding the best move to move my king when he's in trouble. I played 28...Rd2 knowing I'd have to move my king, and after seeing the analysis the spot I picked (Kd8) was almost infinitely more awful than (Kf8).
2. I always appear to be a pawn down (white or black) like 7 moves in. Probably not good going forward.
3. I overvalue the check with no tactic or plan going forward.

Meh still fun times for my 10th or so game. Queen endgame was quick and painless.

3...Nc6 is awkward, since c5 is a key pawn break for you in this type of position. It was nice of White to subsequently gift you his good bishop and help the c5 break happen.

8...Be7 is a mistake--your knight is more comfortable developing via e7-g6.

I would have felt like a superstar if the piece sacrifice I spotted in response to your 14th move was correct. 15. 0-0 dxc3 16. Rad1 Qe8 17. Rd3. The idea was to execute the rook lift with tempo. But Black has the quiet defensive move Kh8!, holding everything together. Kh8-like moves are thematic in these types of positions, where one side is attacking the king along an exposed g-file. I'm scribbling this one down in my position journal.

On White's 16th move, he needs to play Kd1 or something. Kd1 might be a ridiculous-looking move at first glance, forgoing the right to castle and keeping the king out in no man's land--but it exposes the weakness of Bb4+, namely that it voluntarily withdraws your bishop from its key defensive diagonal for nothing in return, and it's not like your pieces can harass his king anyway. White's attack was hopeless until this point. Two active pieces aren't enough here.

You probably noticed the alternative 16...Rf5 already.

The rest of the game can be engine-checked.

I feel like move 43 could have been capturing his b-file pawn, then just promoting your a-file pawn and it would have been a cleaner and faster win.

You're 5 moves from having 2 queens then just wrecking him. Take a look at your position after 5 moves later after move 48 you've got 1 queen and your king is nowhere near to help out yet.

You won with 6 seconds left so this is pretty important, imo. I've lost winable games because of inefficiency with time running down. Plenty of them. I also used to think it was overkill and sort of unsportsmanlike to get extra queens when I can technically win with the pieces I have but after losing games or forcing stalemates I said F it and now I do whatever I need to to ensure the win - overkill or not.

Also it could have been fairly easy to accidentally force a stalemate with 6 seconds left, which would be no bueno and make your hangover worse.

The rest of the game was interesting to say the least! You did well to discover an attack on his pinned Queen. He could have played 37.Rf7+ I guess but you've still got your rook protected.

I knew I was tight on time, and yeah I should've probably went with the 2 queens approach but choked - lesson learned for sure.

Played a game today - the guy was a pawn pusher which was something I'd not seen yet. Anyways, long story short, we get to this stage of the game after 22. Nxe6 Qe3+ (I'm white, white to play):



And have no idea what's going on. The engine says I'm a big favourite but I don't see it...

That's a pretty complicated spot and not easy to recognize the best move. You are in check and also have your knight being threatened by 2 pieces.

I see 4 legal moves.

Qxe3, Qf2, Rf2, Kh1.

Kh1 blows since you lose your Queen.
Qf2 and Rf2 both appear to lose your knight.

Qxe3 trades off queens, which can't be too bad since you are up material. He'll follow with Nxe3, though. Work out what you would do if he plays Nxe3 (instead of capturing with the pawn). He'll now be threatening 3 pieces (e6, c2, and f1). What will your line be?

Well I'm fine with taking with Nxf8 because I'm ahead on material and have a passed pawn. If he takes Nxg1 then I'll Kxg1 and he'll take Kxf8. Then I'd play Re1 and we'll go from there.

However, the engine says I should play Nxd4 and I just don't see it.

two minor pieces and two protected passed pawns for a rook > one passed pawn and a rook for a knight

After Nxf8, he should play Nxc2.

It's actually a really good puzzle for someone of my skill level. I think along the lines of what grando said - where we trade down and I'm still up a bishop and pawn (though neither offensive piece is very active).

I didn't really work out what I would play if he plays Nxc2. Playing Nxd4 protects against that and captures a pawn. This is not a play I would consider at my level. Though I can see its merits. He can trade his knight for your rook if he wants but you are still up material, and capturing that pawn means it's the smallest material loss possible. And yeah you would have 2 passed pawns now. And his pawns are not active at all.

Pretty cool.

Can't I defend Nxc2 with Rad1 then his Ne3 with Rfe1?

I suppose his knight is now completely unmovable there with my 2 rooks totally immobile...

Rac1 and then Rfe1.

Nxc2 leads to this position:



Nxf1 leads to this position:



The second one is a quicker win for White (the bishop has no trouble getting out).

Yeah I meant Rac1 of course. Both appear to be pretty decent structures for white though.

Updates!?

I played 2 games this weekend. One was actually a really fun game - we got down to king and knight vs king and rook when I had an extra pawn on the queenside (game didn't save properly).

Before the game i read a couple chapters of FCE and the knight's fork section of predator at the chessboard.

Managed to get the Queen's rook pawn passed with the 3 v 2 game I just learned from FCE, and then managed to fork his rook and king after reading the other tactics book. He resigned, and I laughed cause it was crazy the two things I just read came into fruition in the same game.

Just played this game:

http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game...r.php?id=90801

where he resigned. The scandi is my standard defense to e4 at this stage, but he played his queen right off the bat...am I supposed to be taking this pawn right away? It seems the way I played it I just gave his tempo back.

I don't know the answer but I've played this defense probably 30 matches and I don't recall seeing that queen opening much if at all. Seems bad. It's not like he can get his LSB to C4 to attempt some lame Scholar's mate. And his queen is on f3 which is bad for his knight.

I wouldn't worry about it.

Nf6 seems like a good counter, though for move 2. This doubly-defends d5, doubly-threatens e4, blocks a weakened f7 square, develops a minor piece, and gets you 1 step closer to 0-0 castling.

You played this game flawlessly. 2. Qf3 is a weird move certainly. 2...dxe4 (as you suggest) or 2...e6 (as you played) are both excellent moves and the choice between them is a matter of taste.

Before playing 8...Bd6, did you look for the proper response to 9. d4?

I think 2...Nf6 is also a good move - but you have to think carefully about what happens after 3. e5, so if it's not awesome I prefer the straightforward moves.

Oh yeah they do play e5 a lot after I play Nf6, which kinda blows. Hard to recognize when I'm looking at the board from white's side! lol

I was planning on playing Nfg4 after d4, but to be honest I hadn't (or haven't) really looked at it yet.

What's the best move on move 11 for black?

I'm also curious about that. Neg4 looks interesting.