Thanks for your kind words. 
After this current game, I’d be pleased to play you in a new thread - and at a pace that suits you. 
I’d love that!
Although I’ve equalised with Black, it’s going to be a tough one to win.
There are some mild complications just now, but soon we’ll be in an ending with level material.
Now of course there are less pieces on the board in an ending but it can still be hard to find the best moves. Endings are more about having a strategy (long-term plan) than developing / spotting tactics in the middle-game.
Well the game has rushed through the middle and reached an ending.
There were a couple of traps for White along the way e.g. 19. Nxd4? e5! wins a piece (with the Fork tactic.)
I’m hopeful that Black retains just enough advantage to gradually improve to a win.
(Dead Cat, if you’d like tips on endings, do ask!)
Incidentally I must praise the Apronus website.
When you click on the game position, you can use the < and > keys to replay the whole game. 
Yes, I would have very much liked to play Nxd4 so as to maintain the threat to f7, but fortunately I spotted the fork in time.
I’m not entirely sure what my strategy should be. Obviously the best I can hope for is a draw (since I believe I could hand the White side to Kasparov here and it would end in a draw), but I’m pleased to have got to such a position against such a good player. In the short term, I decided with my last move that attempting to control the only open file was the priority at this stage, so I’ll see how that develops. When the position allows I will look to activate my king and position my pawns to restrict the scope of Black’s knight - no doubt glee’s plans are similar, we will see!
Oh, and I echo the praise for the apronus site - wonderful that such a resource has been made available not only for free but without ads.
Well done - it shows how a game can change abruptly, especially with a tactic.
In endings, players should try to activate all their pieces (including the King, since there is little danger of checkmate.)
Creating a ‘passed’ pawn (a pawn that cannot be stopped by enemy pawns) is great stuff.
In our game, White can eventually get a passed pawn on the Queen-side, whilst Black can do the same on the King-side.
Quite often (especially in endings with just King and pawns), it comes down to a race to queen a pawn first.
Yes, the rooks do best on open files. However there is a tricky tactic for you to negotiate, since my last move (Rd8) pins your knight against your undefended rook on d1. (I therefore threaten to win a piece by e5.)
I did see that Rd1 was a logical choice a few moves back and am feeling pretty confident…
I did anticipate your Rd8 but as far as I can see, Rd2 e5 Nf3 and Rd2 Ne4 Rd3 are both OK for me, though I am concerned that while I co-ordinate my pieces a bit better, yours could become more threatening.
I thought of playing 22. … Ne4, hoping for
- Rd1? Nc3
- Rd2 Rxd4!
- Rxd4 Ne2+ and Nxd4 winning.
(or if 24. Rd3 Rxd4!
25. Rxc3 Rd1 mate),
but (as you remarked) 23. Rd3 is safe.
N.B. In a face-to-face game, I would play this, since it a) might work and b) uses up some time on my opponent’s clock. I can always go back to the game continuation.
Now we reach a simple looking ending, where my advantage is a more advanced King.
Not much - but I have won with this sort of thing before!
In addition to the advice given so far (which I completely agree with; learn tactics and basic endgames, be aware of opening principles but it’s not efficient (or necessary, at amateur level), to memorize whole sets of openings), I can add a few things:
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Take your defeats seriously. While losing hurts, and the last thing you usually want to do is reminisce over it, it’s so valuable to analyze what went wrong. Not only your proximate error, but perhaps some of the other errors that put your back against the wall. Even free accounts on Chess.com can access the game analysis feature.
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I’m not sure if anyone mentioned strategy as distinct from tactics? Most of the time there will not be a simple fork, skewer etc on the board and you’ll be just looking for ways to improve your pieces: advance some piece towards your opponent / center of the board, gain space, block your opponent’s advances etc etc. So this is something to learn side by side with tactics. For me I found the program Chessmaster 11 was great for learning basic strategy in an entertaining way – took me from beginner to about 1500 (my current rating is about 1800).
Forgot to mention my favorite chess channels :smack:
Agadmatorhas been linked already, and he’s great, but I actually prefer the analysis on Chess network.
And for learning in a fun way, Chess brah is great.
Thanks for this - I was aware of these factors and I feel that in general, my endgame strategy is a relative strength (‘relative’ being the operative word - but maybe it’s just because a blunder in the middlegame (e.g. hanging a piece), which I am still quite prone to, is more obvious than a seemingly minor positional error in an endgame that results in a loss). But at the moment, I’m happy to play my own game rather than seek further advice, we can do that afterwards.
Yes, I have a feeling this is already a winning position for you. I feel my main problem at the moment is I am still being reactive, i.e. having to respond to your positional threats. For example, one line I have looked at is:
- c4 (To prevent your king from immediately accessing my pawns) Nd3 25. Ne4 Nc1 26. Nc3 (I quite like this opposition of the knights, but unfortunately it can’t be maintained for long) Kc5 27. Kf1 Kb4 and I will end up losing material.
Alternatively, 24. a4 (same idea but trying to avoid letting your knight in to d3) Kd5 25. c3 Nd3 26. Nc4 Nc1 27. Nd2 Na2 28. c4+ Kd4 and again I will shortly lose the queenside pawns - in both cases my king is simply too far away to help.
Accordingly, I’m going to try to threaten your kingside pawns in exchange for losing my queenside. It will probably end up being too slow, and of course there are other plans for you and lines I haven’t analysed, but to be honest I don’t have the time or the ability to cover everything. It might at least buy me a bit of time to get my king involved.
Although my point last time about pawn majorities creating a passed pawn was important, it’s interesting that Black’s advanced King has changed things in this game.
Black has excellent chances of winning material on the Queen-side (so White’s majority soon becomes a minority!), while White can counter-attack on the King-side with his knight.
Dead Cat’s analysis of unsuccessfully trying to stop the Black King infiltrating is useful and shows the difficulty of keeping out a piece that can potentially move to eight nearby squares.
Obviously Kings must be protected in the opening and middle game, but they are wonderful in endings (both as attackers and defenders.)
N.B. It is possible to analyse much further ahead in endings (due to fewer pieces on the board and often less powerful ones.)
This is especially true when both sides are attacking on opposite sides and not doing much defending (as is likely here.)
Thanks for confirming my general advice.
I agree that analysing your games is very valuable (and interestingly players will probably learn more from their defeats than their victories), but it does take time.
I think it’s useful to think how much effort you want to put into chess.
I take your point about strategy, which is another vital part of playing well.
I was aiming my remarks at amateur players with limited time to learn. It’s relatively easy to learn basic tactics (and fun!) - once you’ve achieved that, you can build on the knowledge to think about your overall plan (the strategy), which is harder both to define and learn.
Experienced players who also analyse do learn strategy from their experiences. When you’ve seen certain types of position many times, it becomes quicker to think of the likely strategy.
glee, if you were playing yourself, would you be resigning about now as White, or is it too soon? I’ll carry on for at least a few more moves regardless of your answer, as I don’t have a chess computer and can’t foresee how it will play out, plus the endgame practice is good for me, but I have a feeling this position may be lost for White with perfect play.
I personally would play on as White against anybody for a bit here, because:
- a stronger player would show me their great endgame technique
- I haven’t seen a forced win* yet (although Black is indeed much better placed) so against a player about my strength, I would assume they hadn’t seen a win either
- a weaker player might not understand the position and let me off with a draw
N.B. This is a training game, so only play on as long as you are learning from it (and enjoying it as well!)
I’m not using a chess computer, but if you like I could get an assessment of the position from one.
*assessing a position is a whole area of chess!
For example, the starting position is slightly better for White - but it’s hard to say by how much. Some studies have counted up the results of loads of games between Grandmasters and arrived at an advantage of 55% to White.
Some complicated middle games (especially where both sides are attacking) are likely to end decisively - but it;s hard to say who wins…
In some middle games, one side has an initiative - but it may not be enough to win.
Some endings clearly only have two possible results - a win for one side or a draw.
No worries there - I’m definitely still enjoying it, and learning. And I really appreciate you freely giving up your time for something I should really be paying for, thanks.
That might be interesting - my guess is it’s around +0.65 for Black at the moment. Which means I’m certainly not ready to give up just yet. I mean, if the idea was for me to resign at the point at which it was very unlikely for me to win, I could have done that at move 1 :).
Most kind.
It’s true that I do charge for face-to-face coaching (as I do a fair amount of preparation for that sort of training.)
But it’s good to feel appreciated doing this ‘coaching-light’ - especially at my age. (Old man voice ON I’m 66 you know! Old man voice OFF)
Well a free chess program gives Black an advantage of +0.47 (i.e. nearly half a pawn.)
That’s how I feel - I’m quite likely to win a pawn, due to my advanced King.
The difference between the program and my analysis is that if I win a pawn, I then expect to queen first - and that is a long way ahead. (I’m using my experience of similar positions to decide that, rather than calculating.)
Sorry about the delay (not caused by problems!)
This is a key moment in the game and the result could depend on the next few moves. :eek:
As I said before, it’s possible to analyse some way ahead in endings.
This is most true in King and pawn endings, and King, Knight and pawn endings are the next easiest.
I understand it’s by no means unheard of for chess professionals to charge (perhaps per move) for correspondence games against amateurs, which is effectively what this is. Although I guess now we are firmly in the computer age, maybe there is much less demand for this these days. I think what a lot of people fail to appreciate is it’s not just a few minutes of your time for each move, it’s the years of training, hard work, and experience, all of which you paid for in some way. Similar to musicians, artists, etc.
Thanks, delighted I wasn’t too far off with my back of the envelope assessment. As you say, it’s not so much that I’m worried about you winning a pawn, I might be able to win one back on the other side of the board - but by the time I’ve manouevred to do that, I probably won’t be able to prevent you queening first. It’s amazing the power your advanced central pawn is still exerting on the game, even at this stage, and I don’t have a similar asset.
I have looked at a few lines but I’m not sure exactly what your plan is, so I’m still being mostly reactive. Am I right to be a bit proud of Nd6? It seemed to me to be significantly the best move available to me at the time, but I don’t really know. Happy to defer this discussion until after the end of the game, if you prefer.
Much appreciated! 
Yes, my moves and comments are based on playing for over 50 years and coaching for over 40. (How time flies…)
A fine description of my plan.
This shows the difference between human and computer in analysing chess - I can describe my plan, even though I haven’t worked out a precise sequence of moves; the computer can provide massively detailed lists of possibilities (but not ‘sum up’.)
My plan is what you implied: ‘win a pawn (even if I lose one elsewhere) and queen first.’
Nd6 was the move that concerned me most. You can draw some endings by setting up a ‘fortress’, but with so many pawns left, it’s better to keep active when the opportunity presents itself.
Examples of fortresses:
White cannot break through. If Black needs a waiting move, Bh8 is available.
Again White cannot break through. If Black needs a waiting move, Rh6 is available.