Endgame
After some dubious early moves, I'd spent most of this week's game slightly worse but feeling as though I ought to be able to reach a drawn ending. A careless reading would suggest that this is indeed what happened, but in fact I think that the game finished with a nasty double-blunder:
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Here 41. Kd3? is, as best I can tell, a losing move. 41. ... Kg5 as played is the right way - but the draw offer that went with it is not!
The problem for white is that after 42. Rxe5 dxe5, the black king goes f6-e7-d6-c5-b4, and wins; while other plausible moves all seem to fail to 42. ... Kf4.
In post-mortem we'd actually thought that white had missed a win with 41. f4 Rxe3 42. Kxe3 Ke7 43. Kf3 Kf6 44. Kg2 Kg6 45. Kh3 Kh5
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46. b4! axb4 47. b3, and wins the h-pawn. But on getting home I notice that winning that h-pawn doesn't do white any good (black just keeps his king on g6/h6/h5), so this is in fact the drawing line that should have been played.
I've written before about my dislike of adjournments, but I must admit that a quickplay finish does have the unpleasant effect that just as we're running out of time we reach the part of the game where every slip is a half- or even full-point blunder. All the more reason, I suppose, to study this sort of stuff at home.
Here 41. Kd3? is, as best I can tell, a losing move. 41. ... Kg5 as played is the right way - but the draw offer that went with it is not!
The problem for white is that after 42. Rxe5 dxe5, the black king goes f6-e7-d6-c5-b4, and wins; while other plausible moves all seem to fail to 42. ... Kf4.
In post-mortem we'd actually thought that white had missed a win with 41. f4 Rxe3 42. Kxe3 Ke7 43. Kf3 Kf6 44. Kg2 Kg6 45. Kh3 Kh5
46. b4! axb4 47. b3, and wins the h-pawn. But on getting home I notice that winning that h-pawn doesn't do white any good (black just keeps his king on g6/h6/h5), so this is in fact the drawing line that should have been played.
I've written before about my dislike of adjournments, but I must admit that a quickplay finish does have the unpleasant effect that just as we're running out of time we reach the part of the game where every slip is a half- or even full-point blunder. All the more reason, I suppose, to study this sort of stuff at home.
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