This game here:
lichess.org/rCgGSI6h/white#91I played for a draw because I thought this was a losing position for me. If we removed the knights and rooks from the game, and that's what stockfish is recommending here, my opponent would have won the game because his king is way more active than mine and he could have grabbed all my pawns before I could have even reacted properly, on the queen side. This doesn't make any sense to me, why does stockfish think the game was winning before the draw?
One thing...... move 36 you could have took the knight!
On move 44, you had the chance to play Nb5+, and everything would have won for you.
You would have a very deadly h-pawn.
@PetPig I hope this helped
Thanks. But if I exchanged everything like you said, his king could have picked up the pawn at b3 very quickly and my whole queen side would have fallen apart. I just don't see the victory.
If you're already using an engine, why not experiment? Play the position from your opponent's side, try to do exactly that ("pick up the pawn on b3, grab all the pawns") against the engine and see for yourself why it doesn't work. That's how you analyze properly - come up with your own ideas, then use the engine to confirm or find flaws with them.
Also, it can really help if you force yourself to precisely formulate an entire line instead of just a general idea. Especially in pawn endings. For this particular position, I believe it should go like this (starting from move 46):
Nb5+ Nxb5 Rxe5 Kxe5 cxb5 Kd4 h4 Kc3 g4 Kxb3 h5 (possibly gxh5 gxh5, doesn't matter) Kxa4 h6 Kb3 h7 a4 h8=Q a3 Qa1 and from there you'll win easily.
Hi, I published some analysis on why this is winning. It is available for public viewing at:
lichess.org/study/nfm3C28OThe gist is that you are up two pawns, and you can create a passed pawn on either side actually. The fact that you can create a passed pawn on the kingside is a decisive factor in and of itself, because if he goes after the pawns on the queenside he is too slow- and if he goes for the pawns on the kingside, then you can create a passed pawn and jettison it in favor of capturing his entire queenside.
Hope this helps
Ah damn, I see it now. Thanks. Well, that's frustrating. Looks like I wasn't able to calculate the pawn movements correctly, especially how fast I could turn them into a queen on the king side. Ungh.
