Active Rook

Black's position is not comfortable. Neither rook is well-placed. The rook on a5 could become trapped, while the one on f8 is passively defending a pawn that currently has only one attacker.

Black to move

30...Rd8

Black chose the only reasonable move.

31.Ree7

Opting for two pigs seems reasonable, but the engines are concerned about White's king.

31...Rf5

Postgame analysis with chessdotcom's system identified this move as good, but not best. The engine prefers 31...Rd1+ 32.Kf2 Rf5+, which I considered. But, I decided the checkmate threat led to a clearer sequence that did not activate White's king. Black's king is going nowhere. 

On my computer, Stockfish 16 sees a 0.08 difference between the two moves.

32.h3

An alternative would be moving one of the rooks to d7.

32...a5 33.Rab7 Rf6

Black anticipated this position when he played 30...Rd8. White's targets are secure, making progress difficult.

White to move

34.Re5?!

It appears that this move, played after 40 seconds thought in a ten minute game, is aimed at hitting Black's b-pawn with both rooks in order to create a passed pawn on the c-file.

34...Rd1+

Meanwhile, Black has intentions to hit the g-pawn and make his opponent's king sweat a bit. Stockfish favors Rd2, which is rooted in the same plan. My move was played instantly without much thought, but as it forces Kh2, which can be followed with Rd2.

35.Kh2 Rd2 36.Re4 h5!

Keeping White's rook off g4.

37.Re8+ Kh7

White to move

38.Rbb8??

After this blunder, Black has an advantage. The magnitude of the advantage is greater the stronger the engine. Chessdotcom's analysis feature puts Black's advantage at 1.8 pawns, but Stockfish 16 running on my computer has it at 3.38.

Black's king will be checked, but so will White's.

38...Rff2 39.Rh8 Kg6 40.Rxb6 f6

White's moves have been aggressive, but not best. When White's checks come to an end, the problem of White's vulnerable king grows.

White to move

41.Rb5?

King safety had to be addressed.

41.Rxg2+ 42.Kh1 Rg3?!

Here I missed a simple 42...Rge2 leading to forced mate after some spite checks. After the next move, however, mate was again on the horizon.

43.Rhxh5 Rc3 White resigned

King Position

I am working my way through pawn endings that I have played over the past twenty years that ended drawn (see "Four on Four"). Some of these are completely lost for one player who was saved by the clock. Many of them are blown wins by one side or the other. Several games reveal that both players threw away a win, as yesterday's "More Endgame Errors".

Of course, these games nearly all come from blitz games played online. By the time a pawn ending is reached, the players may have only a few seconds remaining. Even so, better instincts can be trained, leading to better endings when one must play instantly.

This morning's review turned up an interesting position with both sides possessing pawn majorities, but White's king is better placed.

Stripes,J -- Internet Opponent [D32]
rated blitz match  freechess.org, 17.10.2005

White to move

33.a4+-

Seems like the wrong pawn, but ...

33...Kg7

33...a5 34.Kf3 Kg7 35.b4 axb4 36.Ke2 Kf7 37.a5 Black's king is outside the square.

34.b4 Kf7

White to move

35.a5??

35.Kf3!+- Ke7 36.Ke4 Kd6 37.Kd4 a6 38.b5

Black to move

Analysis diagram

38...a5

(38...axb5 39.axb5 Kc7 40.Kd5)

39.f4 Kc7

(39...g5 40.fxg5 fxg5 41.Ke4)

40.Kc5 Kd7 41.Kd5 Kc7 42.Ke6 g5 43.fxg5 fxg5 44.Kf5+-

35...Ke6–+

Black, nonethless, managed to fail, too. The game was drawn at move 61.

Stronger King

At the Eastern Washington Open last October, I lost to a former student on Sunday morning. My next loss in standard rated USCF tournament games came yesterday afternoon. In between, I played ten games. I was clearly worse at some point in nearly every game, but still managed eight wins and two draws.

This weekend is the 25th annual Dave Collyer Memorial chess tournament. It is Spokane's premier tournament--both largest and strongest. This year, four former winners--all masters--are competing. In the second round, I was paired against the fifth seed, the strongest non-master. He overlooked a nuance in a tactical sequence in the early middlegame that gave me a slight edge.

James Stripes (1845) -- Chris Kalina (2068) [D37]
25th Collyer Memorial Spokane Valley (2), 25.02.2017

White to move

After 21...Be4

22.Nd7! Bxd3 23.Nxb6 axb6

23...Bxf1 24.Nxc8 It was the vulnerable bishop on e7 that my opponent overlooked when he forced the trade of queens 24...Bf8 25.Kxf1+-

24.Rxd3±

My chess engine insists this position is equal, but most human players would favor White.

24...Rd5 25.Rfd1 Rxd3 26.Bxd3 Nd5 27.Bg3 Bf6 28.e4 Ne7 29.e5

This move was a little hasty on my part.

29.Ba6  does more to improve my pieces relative to those of my opponent. I thought that I was trapping the bishop and moved instantly. Later, this bishop won the game in poetic recall of my round five game during the Spokane Chess Club's Winter Championship. A piece that seemed to be inactive became the star in the ending. See "Perseverance".

29...Bg5 30.f4 Bh6 31.Ba6 Rb8 32.Rd4 Nd5

White to move

We have reached the critical position where the middlegame must be played with clear understanding of what may go down in the endgame. Or perhaps, this is already the endgame because I determined that is was time to activate my king. Studying this position, I reasoned that my king was stronger than my opponent's king. My plan was to post my king on f3, protecting my f-pawn, so that my dark-squared bishop was free to harass Kalina's vulnerable b-pawns.

I failed to anticipate how Black could bring his king to the queenside the capture my light-squared bishop, and hence underestimated his next move.

33.Kf2?

33.Bc4 or another move of this bishop leaves me with an edge.

33...b5 34.Kf3 Kf8 35.Be1

35.Bf2 was hard to find, but protects the other bishop.

35...Ke8 36.Bxb4?

36.Bf2 maintains equality.

36...Rb6 37.Bc8 Nxb4

37...Bxf4 38.Ke4 Rb8 39.Ba6 Bxh2 is even better for Black.

38.Rxb4 Kd8 39.Bxe6 fxe6 40.a4 g6 41.g4 Kc7

I offered a draw a move or two before this point. Chris said, "maybe later", and played on.

White to move

42.Rxb5

I was too optimistic about being able to eliminate Black's e- and g-pawns.

42.axb5 leaves me with more options for counterplay.

42...Rxb5 43.axb5–+ Bf8 44.Ke4 Bc5 45.f5 Kd7?

My opponent pursues a plan that demonstrated his king to be stronger than mine, but this move could have squandered the win if I had calculated correctly later on.

45...Kb6–+

46.Kf4 Ke7

46...Be7–+

47.h4 Kf7 48.h5 Bb6

White to move

I spent a bit of time trying to find the draw. Of course, if I can leave my opponent with only the h-pawn, the draw is elementary. Understanding that, he labored to prevent it. That was the reasoning behind his move 45. In this position, I think I found the correct idea, but then three moves in, the lines crossed in my head and I fell short.

49.fxe6+ Kxe6 50.hxg6 hxg6 51.Kg5 Kf7

White to move

52.e6+??

52.Kh6 was necessary Be3+ 53.g5 Bd4 54.e6+ Kxe6 55.Kxg6=

52...Kg7–+ 53.Kf4 Kf6 54.e7 Kxe7 55.Kg5 Kf7 56.Kh6 Kf6 57.b3 g5 58.Kh5 Be3 59.b4 Ke5 60.b6 Kf4 61.b7 Ba7 62.b5 Bb8 63.b6 Bd6 0–1

It was hard for my unbeaten streak to come to an end. It was also hard to squander first an advantage, and then miss a draw. Even so, if I play today as well as I did in this game, I should at least finish the event with a far better performance than last year's Collyer (see "Bishop versus Knight").

Beware the Aggressive King

Black to move

This position arose in Bok -- Neumann, Bundesliga 2011. Analysis in Chess Informant 113/116 stops ten moves prior to this position.

Black played 38...Rh3 and was quickly lost. Did Black have a chance to draw?