Short Side

After playing a rook and pawn ending for 43 moves and keeping things level, my opponent erred.

Black to move

The king must go to the short side; that is Kg8. The rook can shift to the long side at the right moment to enable checking White's king from a distance. With such play, Black holds a draw.

63... Ke8?? 64. f5 Ra1 65. Rb8+ Kd7 66. Kf7 Rf1 67. f6 Rf2

White to move

68. Rb7+

68. Kg7 is a faster win Rg2+ 69. Kf8 Rf2 70. f7 Rg2 71. Rb4

68... Kd8 69. Rb4 Rd2

Black understands that White would like to drive the Black king another file from the pawn. But White has other means available. Means that I failed to employ.

70. Kg7

70. Kf8 is faster.

70... Rg2+ 71. Kf8 Rd2 72. f7 Rd1

White to move

73. Re4

Better would have been 73. Rf4 or 73. Rg4.

73... Rd2 74. Re8+

74. Kg7 Rg2+ 75. Kf6 Rf2+ 76. Ke6 Rf3 77. Re5

74... Kd7 75. Re7+

75. Kg7 Rg2+ 76. Kh6

75... Kd8 76. Re6 Rg2 77. Rd6+ Kc7

White to move

78. Rd4

My other small inaccuracies added a move or two each to eventual checkmate. Here when I played the second best move, eight moves were added to to road towards checkmate.

78. Ke7! Rf2 79. Re6 Rf1 80. f8=Q Rxf8 81. Kxf8

78... Re2 79. Kg7 Rg2+ 80. Kf6 Rf2+ 81. Ke6 Re2+ 82. Kf5 Rf2+ 83. Rf4 {Black resigned} 1-0

Remember always: king on the short side, rook on the long side.