What could I have done to win this game?

G'day all. This is the first time I'm posting one of my games, and I'm hoping for a hint or two that will improve my play.

I've been playing chess for almost a year, and have learned a lot so far. I've even started to play a few games I'm not completely ashamed of! For the most part, I think this is one of the best games of chess I've played  - I managed to get into an endgame with an extra pawn, against a superior opponent.

The trouble is, I couldn't convert that advantage to a win, and ended up settling for a draw. I've included a lot of notes explaining my thought process, which might help shed some light on why I did what I did.

If someone could help point out where I could have done something better or differently (particularly in the endgame), I'd really appreciate it! I fought hard for the advantage, and I'd love for it to mean something, should I manage to achieve a similar position in the future.

Okay, I am at move 31. f4. I would have played, 31.f6. That way, he will not have a passed pawn. I will keep looking, but it also looks like you lost a lot of tempo at the end with unnecessary B-pawn moves. What do you think?

I think you're right. Looking at how the game played out, f6 would have been a better response.

As for the b pawn moves, my thinking was that I'd need to get BOTH pawns to the back rank to get a queen, and that I could use them to defend each other. Do you think it would have been better to just use the king to defend the a pawn, and then bring the b pawn forward only once I'd exchanged my a pawn for his rook?

So:  44. ... - Kb2 for example?

I agree totally with Kb2 as the quickest way to get the pawn down I guess we have to count moves to see if the B-pawn can get to queen before the rook is overwhelmed by the connected f and e pawns after that

29..Rc8 instead of 29...Ra8?  You almost never want to make your rook passively defend pawns in the endgame. Just a quick tip :)

37...a4 and I dont' see how white stops the pawn from promoting

good game!

Thanks very much for the advice, tryst. I appreciate it.

This "counting moves" business is clearly something I've really got to do some work on. I thought I had plenty of time here, and was proven badly wrong.

I think 43. ...a2 is an important tempo move. Then 44. Ra7 Kb3 with the threat of Rd1 and the passed pawn cannot be stopped so if 45. Ke2 then 46.Kb2 and the passed pawn will queen.

Do you see any flaws? Or a better path?

Thanks very much. Those are both MUCH better moves than the ones I made. Just what I was looking for.

Oh, man. You're absolutely right. Why on earth was I concerned with capturing his c pawn?! It's not even doing anything!

I was originally thinking that perhaps I was too focussed on advancing my a pawn. Going by these last few comments, it seems like maybe I wasn't focussed *enough* on it.

It was a really neat game you played. Thanks for posting it

Here's what fritz would do, provided you only give it about 5 seconds a move (I don't have much time to have it done more properly now).

The final result is a draw, though it is very possible that improvement is possible. Especially in endgames long calculations (that can be deceptively simple if you know where your king is heading, but very hard if you are a computer program looking at all variatiosn) are important, so the most significant conclusion from the game below (maybe the only one) would be that at least you didn't have a very clear tactical-esque win when you started off!

 But you have picked up on an important endgame concept. Many times, a single tempo will decide the game (or turn a win into a draw).

And, of course, it is fun to learn how powerful passed pawns are (especially on side of board).

Hi, I haven't subjected this game to much deep thought, but looking at the final position, I'm thinking that black might have a win and certainly couldn't loose without blundering badly.

I'm thinking that after the final position, black plays ...Ra7 and it's up to White to prove that Black can't force the pawn on.  I haven't figured out how to use the position editor thingy, so...there you go.

I think your mistake may have come from you trying to advance your pawns and king up the queenside before restricting the white rook's movements and closing up the kingside. Starting from move 28, your goal should be to activate your rook and use your pawn advantage on the queenside to allow you to get a passed pawn on the kingside. 28...Rc8 seems necessary to prevent either the white king or rook from participating actively in the endgame. Then you can move your pawns up the queenside until white is forced to move to defend from the pawns. Then your rook or king can penetrate the white camp and attack the queenside pawns. That's what I would try to do.

Thanks for that! I'll at least take some consolation in the fact that I got to the draw a little quicker than Fritz, I suppose :)

stats_man: Absolutely. All I'm looking for here is improvement. I'll happily take my losses (and draws that could have been wins) in exchange for some lessons learned.

polydiatonic: Ra7 is the move I was going to play, but white can just check and pin me for as long as he wants. I'd just be dragging things out hoping for a blunder. The game was a really fun and sportsmanlike one - it looked like a drawn position to me, so I thought that was a fair point to end it for both my opponent and me. He said he wasn't expecting to get away with a draw, but I think he earned it.

heavyop: That sounds sensible to me - thanks very much. Rc8 looks like a key move that I missed. Parking my rook behind the passed pawn really was too passive.

Thanks everyone for all the help - I may not win the next one, but I'll at least try to throw it away with a different mistake that I can learn from! :)