Lessons Learned - Part 2

Look for weak pieces and combinations in the endgame! Even with not many pieces game winning tactics can arise!

I have 2 minutes. I am in a better position, but if I do nothing, its going to swindle out to a draw or worse. Here I played 1. Nxg8 Rxg8 2. Qxh7 Rf8 getting my pawn back and threatening both the rook and the pawn. But that's not enough.

In such situations, I should always look for tactics, for better moves. And indeed, here there is. The key is two things:

• The bishop has nowhere to go except d5 and cannot be defended more.
• We can setup a discovery by putting the queen behind the knight.

Then, we can see that if we move our queen to g7, we attack the bishop and setup the discovery. This means the bishop has to move, and the only available square, d5, breaks the contact between the rook and the queen, making them both undefended. In this case the discovery with Nd7+ would win the queen.

So this essentially wins a piece and probably the game.
Here I should have:

• In the first place look for tactics and better moves
• Keep in mind weakly defended pieces and pieces with low mobility (important also for trapping pieces or forcing combinations)
• Look to actively create threats and tactical ideas, in this case a discovery.

Play followed with the passed f pawn becoming a ever growing threat and I only managed to win this endgame because my opponent blundered his king.

If the opponent makes a bad-looking move, double check any sacrifices ideas and look for all the opponents pieces that can join the fight after the sacrifice. If there really is nothing, then you can ignore it (or exploit it)

My opponent just played Ng4, looking pretty suspicious. I did not expect that. It is true that my opponent is a bit cramped, but a rook lift or something similar was more expected.

Instead, he choose to move his knight in a position where it is completely dominated by my pawns, and it is also apparent that this is not a routing maneuver since no squares for this exist, only one: going back.

So, I saw this move and I was like: "hmmm, nothing to worry about, lemme chill and develop. My plan is super super crystal clear:

"Knights on c6 and e6, rooks on the d file, bishop on g6, the whole army working together to exploit the weakness on the d file: the backwards pawn and the hole on d4."

I briefly thought about any sacrifice ideas but dismissed them all pretty quickly: I just take back with the pawn and I chill.

But. Always look for checks: there is a sniper queen! And suddenly the sacrifice idea looks very tasty:
1. Ng4 Nc6 2. Nxf6! gxf6 3. Qh6+! Ke7 4. Bh4 and suddenly I have many problems. I probably at least have to give back up the exchange. (Engine gives +2 for the sac)

Here, I have time. I can just play h5, kicking the knight back and at the same time preventing the sacrifice: the rook now eyes h6. I can continue with my plan later, since white cannot do much anyways.

If you find a good looking move but notice a potential counter, calculate it thoroughly, and DON'T PLAY HOPE CHESS! If you can refute it, find a better move, even if not that stylish.

Alright. Here's the critical position. My opponents castles. Which looks like a mistake at first glance because we do have a nasty discovered check that almost wins a piece, if not for the lucky placement of both enemy knights.

After 7 seconds I played Bf4+. It was sadly not correct and loosing my advantage.

The point is, while it looks good, white is going to play Ned2 pinning himself, but it's fine, since he has 3 unkickable defenders and I only have 3 attackers. It takes me one extra turn to bring the fourth attacker (via N8b6), and white can use this time to kick my bishop with g3, and my bishop must let go the pin.

This most likely transitions to an equal endgame with rook and minor piece. I think I even kindof saw this and "verdrängt" it, since I love to play hope chess. (which sadly this time even worked..)

On the other hand, playing the bishop to e5 forcibly wins a pawn. This not too hard to see:

• The only way to defend the pawn is via c3.
  • But this still looses the pawn after ...Rxd1+ 2. Kxd1 Nxb2
• Thus, one might think that first trading the rooks is the correct play with Rxd8.
  • But this also looses to Zwischencheck: ...Bxb2+!

PS: My opponent tho was a bit dumdum and played Ouga bouga check. Which essentially looses the one tempo I needed, and now the tactic works: 1. ...Bf4+ Ned2 2. N8b6 Re1+ (ouga bouga) Kf7 3. Re2 (oups I must defend the knight again) Nxd2 3. Nxd2 Nc4 and now the knight is truly lost.