How to Win?

Here is a recent tournament game I played with 30 min time controls:

[Event "rated standard match"]
[Site "Free Internet Chess Server"]
[Date "2006.07.11"]
[Round "?"]
[White "exigentsky"]
[Black "WebBeing"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[WhiteElo "1896P"]
[BlackElo "1834"]
[ECO "E11"]
[TimeControl "1800"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Bb4+ 4. Bd2 Qe7 5. e3 O-O 6. Nc3 d6 7. a3 Bxc3 8. Bxc3 Nbd7 9. Bd3 e5 10. dxe5 Nxe5 11. Nxe5 dxe5 12. O-O b6 13. b4 Rd8 14. Qc2 Bb7 15. Rfd1 h6 16. Qb2 e4 17. Be2 Rxd1+ 18. Rxd1 Rd8 19. Rxd8+ Qxd8 20. c5 Qe7 21. cxb6 cxb6 22. Bxf6 Qxf6 23. Qxf6 gxf6 24. g4 {Game drawn by mutual
agreement} 1/2-1/2

Here is the position in which we deemed the game a draw:



By move 20, the game looked very drawish and I'm not sure how I could have changed this. My opponent was determined draw and he forced a lot of trades. Anyone care to help me in the analysis and suggest some improvements? Thanks in advance.

BTW: He had 9 minutes on his clock and I had 18. Should I have continued hoping for a timeout?

Frankly id have played on and at least would have made an attempt to round up the pawn on e4.

The Final position: -

White has a better Pawn structure, simply based on that I think white would have an advantage in a K+p's vs. K+p's Endgame, thus, I think you should of tried to trade off bishops and start marching your king to the weak squares (f4, f5, etc)

I'm not sure however if this advantage would of been enough to win - depends how (comparitivly) strong your endgames are really, plus the extra time, i think it would of been possibly to force a win.

Originally posted by exigentsky
Here is a recent tournament game I played with 30 min time controls:

[Event "rated standard match"]
[Site "Free Internet Chess Server"]
[Date "2006.07.11"]
[Round "?"]
[White "exigentsky"]
[Black "WebBeing"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[WhiteElo "1896P"]
[BlackElo "1834"]
[ECO "E11"]
[TimeControl "1800"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Bb4+ 4. Bd2 Qe7 5. on his clock and I had 18. Should I have continued hoping for a timeout?

Mm... tricky. Not sure about your handling of the opening as I know very little about the Bogo. After that, though, I think 9. b4 e5 10. d5 would have given you a more unbalanced position than the game, ie, one therefore with more winning (and also losing) chances for you. Also, the slightly bashful 11. Be2 would have preserved you the two bishops alongside a touch more central space, although it looks a bit risky for some reason. After that, from your point of view, I am surprised you agreed a draw in the final position. Black's doubled pawns and somewhat stranded e4 pawn represent targets. Imagine the final position with your king magically moved to f4 and bishop to c2 - bingo. Whereas black has nothing comparable conjurable. Maybe you would have got chances from your opponent to exploit this, eg 24. ... Kg7 25. Kg2 Kg6 26. Kg3 f5 27. Kf4 Bc8 28. gxf5+ Bxf5 29. Bc4 f6 30. Bf7+ Kxf7 31. Kxf5 and white picks up a pawn with a probable win.

& no, you shouldn't play for a time-out at a standard time-rate game imo. If you play for such wins regularly at such speed limits, you will soon get ignored/censored for the boredom you create, to the point where you can't find an opponent - an issue on FICS. Where my handle is Ihaveagirlfriend, incidentally.

Yes, you are right, I should not have agreed to a draw. I had twice as much time and a better position. I also ran 15 5 5 engine games with Toga and Rybka alternating colors. Each one was won by White. I definitely should have continued. Since the material was equal, I really didn't think I would pull it off, but of course my structure was better. I was a fool.

BTW; I realize that Bxf6 was also a mistake. It secures an advantage in the endgame, but I probably would have had better chances with Be5!.

It depends all on how much time you have left. With just a few seconds on the clock draw is acceptable. But in all other cases i think that with carefull play white would have won this.

And is an end game like this boring???? I love these things, there is nothing more fun then playing out a slight advantage in an almost equal end game 😀

Originally posted by exigentsky

BTW; I realize that Bxf6 was also a mistake. It secures an advantage in the endgame, but I probably would have had better chances with Be5!.

Intriguing. With what idea - wafting the bishops at black's queenside pawns, along with Qd4, whilst the knight is still sorta-pinned to g7?!

Originally posted by exigentsky

[fen]6k1/pb3p2/1p3p1p/8/1P2p1P1/P3P3/4BP1P/6K1 b - - 0 24[/fen]

You'd have been able to march your King out on the g file to attack the e pawn. Then you could have manoeuvred the bishop to attack the same pawn, winning the central pawn.

From there, you would have gone onto win it.

That was just from a quick glance, so I may be missing something.

D