jstevens1
89 ( +1 | -1 ) Jo's Great Escape!!Here is a change from all the tales of woe I have been giving you all on this forum. I have some brighter stuff to write home about. Despite being down a pawn for the best part of the following game and then 6 material points down I managed the following:-
ionadowman
200 ( +1 | -1 ) Not quite Houdini...... But well done, all the same. Though a pawn down, with B vs N you always had reasonable drawing chances. You just made the most of them. That's gotta be good!
Some comments: A] After 4...Qf6, White needn't be in such a hurry to exchange. Clearly Black wants it - then he can do it in his own time. I like 5.Nc3 Qxd4 Nxd4 with a substantial lead for White. B] After 10...Nd4 I rather liked White's anticipation of the opening of the g-file. But sometimes it's worth looking at odd-ball moves. I would certainly look at 11.e5 here, with the idea 11...dxe5 12.Bxg7 Rb8 13.Ba6... Yes, this trades a centre pawn for a flank pawn - not usually a desirable bargain, but here, Black's Q-wing is broken up, and White keeps the bishop-pair. Very hard to assess. Alternatively Black might play 11...Nxf3 12.exf6 Nxd2 13.fxg7 Rg8 14.Rxd2 Rxg7 15.g3... Black has the bishop for knight, but there are plenty of pawns about, and White's form the tidier set. Again, not easy to assess. But one might consider either outcome at least as good as the game continuation... C] A good alternative to Bf4 is 13.Nb5, which inhibits castling for the moment, and may induce Black to move his K to the d-file. I haven't looked closely into the possibilities, but it looks reasonably promising for White... D] Instead of 15.Ne2, 15.Nd5 came into consideration E] At move 50 or (possibly better) 51, it looks simpler to go for the h-pawn with 50.Kf5 or 51.Kf5. 51.Bc4 (ordinarily a desirable move) rather spoils things because after 51...Nc1 White dare not take the f-pawn on account of the knight fork leaving Black a remote passed pawn on the b-file... F] ... but the ensuing pawn race is quite exciting, and White's drawing method a queen down is very neat - worth studying and adding to one's own technique.
Very interesting endgame. Possibly not the most accurate, but both sides were playing to identifiable plans, which (in my view) is the key to developing a good endgame technique. Mind you - endgames aren't all about technique! Cheers, Ion