No Time for Endings (part 2)

In the first article of this series I discussed a recent game where my opponent gave up the win, only for me to return the favour. In this article I look at another of my games played this season, this time playing for Kirby Castlers in the Leicestershire League.

Note: I am trialling some Chessbase features in this blog post. If you go to the bottom of the page there is a QR code. Using the QR code you should be able to play through the game on your phone.

Alternatively I have also made it available on the Chessbase Cloud database server. (I can’t guarantee how far into the future this will be active!).

Dalley,Kevin - Johnson,Andy
Heathcote Arms 1 v Kirby Castlers 1
Leicestershire League: Division 3, 29.10.2024

After a middlegame where I had an edge but could not extend it to anything meaningful, we have arrived at a minor piece endgame.

A quick assessment of the position is that material is equal, White has some slight damage to his kingside pawns and his king is more central. The big "imbalance" is that White has a bishop against a knight. Given that there are pawns on both sides of the board, the longer ranged piece is going to be stronger.

The other key factor is that at this point I had 20 minutes remaining to my opponents 9. I believed that the position was drawn but it would be hard for Black to defend. I felt that there were only two real outcomes - barring a major blunder - of a White win or a draw. So tapping into my “inner Carlsen" I decided to see if I could make something of this!

36.Bd5?

Immediately I go wrong! In fact my assessment was probably incorrect and the original position may be winning for White.

I needed to play 36.b4 axb4 37.cxb4 c4 this looks scary! (Here 37...cxb4 loses as White's king can infiltrate the queenside and Black's king is in no position to intervene or create counterplay. An example of how play might proceed is: 38.Kd3 f5 39.gxf5 Nxf5 40.Bc6 Kf7 activating the king but too late. 41.Bxb5 Nd6 42.Bc6 Ke7 43.Kd4 Kd8 44.Kc5 Kc7 45.Bf3 and the pawn falls.) 38.Bc6 f6 39.Ke3 Kf7 40.Kd4 Ke6 41.a4 this is the key move! 41...bxa4 42.Bxa4 and White will round up the remaining pawn (e.g. Bd1-e2xc4).]

36...Kg7?

Here 36...b4! makes Black’s life easier as it puts all the pawns on Black squares. The key point it is going to be very hard for the White king to infiltrate the queenside.

37.f4

Again b4 is they key move, but this is a theme that both sides ignore for the next few moves.

37...h6

38.Ke3 Kf6 39.g3 Ke7 40.a3 Kf6

41.b4!

Finally White plays this critical move. However, Black now has a more active king.

41...axb4 42.axb4 cxb4 43.cxb4

43...g5?!

Black needed to recentralise his king.

44.Kd4! Ke7 45.Kc5 f6 46.f5 Kd7

47.Bc6+?!

This is an error but the reasons are quite hard to see over the board with little time. This is an example of a very important endgame concept - zugswang. In the game, the subtleties passed me by - I was too eager to win the pawn! I also broke another rule (from Shereshevsky's book Endgame Strategy) "do not hurry".

47.Bg2!! Losing a move! The point is that Black has very few moves available. The black knight is preventing the king taking on b5. The king has to defend the knight. However if White takes b5 with the bishop it allows Ne4+ winning the g3 pawn.

By playing a waiting move it forces Black to play a move he doesn't want to make. 47...Ke7 48.Bc6 Zugswang!! Ideally Black would simply like to pass and play no move! 48...Nc4 49.Bxb5 and the pawn is captured without risk.

47...Kc7 48.Bxb5?

This is, as explained above, impetuous and allows counterplay, increasing the possibility of the draw.

With 48.Bg2! White can still wait a move, transposing to the line above.

48...Ne4+

49.Kd4?

Away from the heat of the game, I cannot understand why I played this move. Prehaps I was worried (unduly) about the knight fork on c3. The brain does funny things in time pressure and sometimes the hand has a mind of its own! I just remember looking afterwards, wondering why I played there!

49.Kd5 Nxg3 50.Be8! (Actually 50.Ke6? is inaccurate as it allows (the admittedly hard to find): 50...h5! 51.Kxf6 hxg4 52.Kxg5 Nxf5!! an instructive sacrifice 53.Kxf5 g3 54.Bf1 Kc6 55.Kf4 g2 56.Bxg2+ Kb5 and draws!) 50...Kd8 51.Bg6 and White should win.

49...Nxg3

The position is probably drawn now with best play - but again White has nothing to lose by grinding on.

50.Be8

50...Kb6?

This is a mistake as it now allows White back into d5 - undoing the error on move 49. After (for example): 50...Ne2+ 51.Kd5 Nf4+ 52.Kc5 Nd3+ 53.Kb5 Ne5 54.Bh5 there is no obvious way forward.

51.Kd5 Kc7 52.Ke6 Kd8

53.Bc6 h5 54.gxh5 Nxh5 55.Bf3

55...Kc7??

With only a small amount of time left Black cracks completely. However the game was already lost. After 55...Ng7+ 56.Kxf6 Nxf5 57.Kxf5 Kc7 58.b5 Kb6 59.Bc6 White's king snaffles the g-pawn then moves over to assist his b-pawn through to queening.

56.Bxh5 1-0

Unlike the first part of the series, I was ultimately the winner of this endgame, however the assessment changed from win, to draw, to win again over a short number of moves. My opponent had played well during the middlegame and entered the endgame only slightly worse. The biggest issue was the time difference, which allowed me to play on safely - in a slightly better position - and ultimately make less mistakes!

Kevin 5/1/25

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