Endgame is hard... need some advice

Im my last two games I got advantage in the endgame but I manage to mess it up and I lost both games.

How can I get better at the endgame?

It is not only about how I lost those game but more about why I didn't win.

One game from around move 26 I was playing black and I think I had massive advantage...

https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/5901078403?tab=analysis 

Game two https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/5900808880 black again from around move 28...

In both games tactical mistakes were your main problem. As just a few examples:

Game 1

15 … Rxb3 loses a rook for only a pawn

20 … Nd2 forks the queen and rook (good spot!) … unfortunately, it could have been captured by the B on h6.

36 … Qxd2 you had a strong attack going here, the exchange of queens pretty much ends it. You still have material advantage, but white’s pieces are a bit more active and can threaten to pick off your pawns pretty quickly.

39 … Rxb2 loses your N.

Game 2

16 … Bf4 loses it to exf4

17 … Bxe3 is the same mistake

Study tactics, tactics, tactics. Then study tactics a bit more.

At a more positional level, in Game 1 12 … g5 was a serious mistake. This move opens up a big hole in the defenses around the king. In fact, white exploits this hole to win in the end. Think long and hard before moving a pawn in front of castle king. That move will create a weakness, you need to get something good in exchange. 17 … g4 makes the problem worse.

In Game 2 after 32 Nxb7 the danger here is that white will pick off the other pawn and then have a clear path to advance their a and b pawns to queen. Which is what happened. You needed an active plan to stop this. One plan would be advancing you king-side pawns, forcing white to defend against this threat (instead of advancing their own pawns).

Thank you for your comments. I did a bit reading and I can see that this is not endgame - I misused the concept.

From what I can see is that this is the same old be patient scan for weaknesses look for and exploit hanging pieces dont leave your pieces undefended. It just moved little bit further down into the game. The one I am not as familiar with. On one side this is good. I think I have improved in the opening phase and I am experiencing similar problems in the mid game. I just need to get used to the situation.

I need to look up king defense as for some reason I want to use the h,g,f pawns as it appears to me that they being wasted - that is why I tried to do, doomed, g advance. Having all my pieces on one side and king castling on the other wasn't helpful as well - maybe queen castle in this position would be better - idk but at least I understand which is OK.

For tactics, would you recommend doing more puzzles? Or is there a better way to study tactics?

Thank you again, very nice constructive feedback.

Check out the content on Endgame in this blog article....lots of good stuff...

Improving Your Chess - Resources for Beginners and Beyond...

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/improving-your-chess-resources-for-beginners-and-beyond

Hey kocur4d.

I've looked at your first game and wrote a short game analysis. you can find it here: https://lichess.org/study/v3YR5mzN

Regarding your questions:
1. Why did you lose? You didn't lose because of being bad in the endgame.
You lost because your tactical vision needs improvement. I understand that if you see yourself as an "positional endgame player" that doing tactics doesnt seem sexy. But tactics are essential. Not only for winning material but (and even more importantly) for making your pieces and king safe while you work on your endgame plans. I advise you to get an easy puzzle collection and do the whole book multiple times. Its the fastest way to improve.
I used "Bain - Chess Tactics for Students" and currently work through "Coakley - Winning Chess Exercises for Kids".

2. How to improve in the endgame?

This needs practice and books. I started out with "Silman's Endgame Course" which presents the material in useful chunks. The youtube channel Hanging Pawns also has an amazing video playlist in which he goes over very important endgame concepts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoZPZdnYYk8&list=PLssNbVBYrGcAcadywNlkAGpO1-kLfy0y2

Hope I could help you

My biggest mistake is giving away pawns and getting forked. Maybe take more time. Other than that, I really don't know much except watching passed pawns.

Maybe we need to get better at forking our self! Cheers.

Thank you for taking time in writing this. Very nice constructive feedback. I think it highlights pretty well what I wrote above. I need to keep an eye on fundamentals in this part of the game as well. I focused on mating and forgot about the rest.

I will check your resources. Cheers.

I will have a look. Thank you.