Endgame help - Did I miss a win?

Heroic Metool View Profile

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17 Apr '10 15:54

Heroic Metool View Profile

Joined: 28 Dec '05
Moves: 7191

17 Apr '10 15:541 edit

I've just finished a game in this site and I'd like to know if I missed any chances in the endgame. We got to an early endgame in the Queen's Gambit Accepted.

At first I had a slight material advantage (knight and bishop for a rook), but my pieces lacked coordination. I ended up returning the material in exchange for the bishops pair, which might have been good enough for a win, since there were pawns on both sides of the board. Then I tried to win material with a little combination, but I missed a strong reply by white - I did win a pawn, but it was a doubled a-pawn (pretty useless, I'd say). In the final position, with bishop against knight, I'm probably slightly worse. The game was drawn.

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Could you guys point out my mistakes in the ending? Where did I miss the win, if there ever was any?

clandarkfire
Grammar Nazi
Auschwitz
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03 Apr '06
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44348
17 Apr '10 16:03
Well fritz seems to think you have a win in the final position - though I would probably be more comfortable with white 😕
Heroic Metool
São Paulo, Brazil
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17 Apr '10 16:09
Originally posted by clandarkfire
Well fritz seems to think you have a win in the final position - though I would probably be more comfortable with white 😕
Does it provide a winning line, though, or just a positive evaluation of the position? I don't really see how black can break through...
Artardo
Joined
09 Mar '10
Moves
1460
17 Apr '10 16:59
White's weak pawns at a4 and f3 can only be attacked with the aid of Black's king. If white parks his N on b3, I don't see how black's K can get at them directly. That leaves the pawns on h3 & g4 as the only immediate targets for black, so to have winning chances, he needs to keep his B behind the white pawns, and look for an opportunity to play ...f6 and ...h6 (with the B on the c1-h6 diagonal), and try to infiltrate on the dark squares, getting his king to f4. That's what I would try, though my endgame technique probably isn't good enough to pull it off, I'd learn a lot about B vs N endings.
Mad Rook
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19 Jun '06
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17 Apr '10 17:01
All I can give you is a box score, sorry. (Better than nothing, maybe? )

Stockfish 1.7 evaluates the final position as dead equal. Neither side ever got over 2/3 pawn eval at any point. It did think you could have been a little over a pawn ahead with the line 21...Be7 22.Bxf6 Bxd8 Bxd8 Nxb3. Whether this would have resulted in a win, I have no idea.
Heroic Metool
São Paulo, Brazil
Joined
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18 Apr '10 22:421 edit
Originally posted by Mad Rook
All I can give you is a box score, sorry. (Better than nothing, maybe? )

Stockfish 1.7 evaluates the final position as dead equal. Neither side ever got over 2/3 pawn eval at any point. It did think you could have been a little over a pawn ahead with the line 21...Be7 22.Bxf6 Bxd8 Bxd8 Nxb3. Whether this would have resulted in a win, I have no idea.
Very nice, that does seem to be the best try for black. Thanks for the answers!
Maxacre42
Joined
16 Oct '09
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2448
19 Apr '10 00:131 edit
I'd say black is winning personally, but I'm not very good at endgames. I would think black would be able to zungzwang white or something at some point. You couldn't really lose anyways, so why didn't you play on? I'd start with dominating the knight with Bc7, seems like a good move that frees your king. White would run out of things to do and would be stuck with a bad knight move or something. That's usually a part of the disadvantage with knight vs bishop.
geo86012
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28 Jun '07
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19 Apr '10 12:18
In the final position I'd say black is better and can play for a win by bringing the king over to the queen side & take the a4 pawn. White's king is too far away and White can't make a pawn breakthrough on the king side. Black uses the bishop to keep the knight at bay.
Mad Rook
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19 Apr '10 13:311 edit
Originally posted by geo86012
In the final position I'd say black is better and can play for a win by bringing the king over to the queen side & take the a4 pawn. White's king is too far away and White can't make a pawn breakthrough on the king side. Black uses the bishop to keep the knight at bay.
Interesting idea. I tried that against the engine (first playing Bc7, then moving the king queenside to snag the a4 pawn). White actually was able to make a pawn breakthrough on the king side. Ne3, Nd5, (and Nf6 if the bishop stayed on c7), then a timely h5 push. The result was that Black's a-pawn queens and White's g-pawn queens one tempo later.

Even though Stockfish gave an equal eval, you had queens back on the board with a game still to be played.

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Endgame help - Did I miss a win?