Tony generosity and small advantages (General)
Although the endgame is more complicated than I suspected it is very difficult to resist to play Ke4, one of the B small advantages is his King position and the possibility of penetration, if he does not do that how is going to win ? Of course more important than winning is not losing but it seems that the Kn should be able to sacrifice itself for the pawn and to attract the WKing away from the other pawns favoring the better position of the BKing.The WB will not be able to keep the BKing away on his own even after Bd2.It could end up in a draw anyway.
The fact is that playing with small advantages is difficult.at least for me,since I should not expect too much from single moves but only from many 5-10 of them.Also recognizing small advantages is difficult and without that there is no way to trasform them into a win.
Last but not the least losing them is fairly easy.
Tony generosity and small advantages
I was surprised that everyone suggested ...Ke4, as it is a move I wouldn't even look at! I'm simply too scared of having knight v bishop with pawns on both wings (which normally favours the bishop) and even more scared of trying to stop an h-pawn with a knight!
It is possible that Black can draw after this as he still has the more active king, but there is absolutely no guarantee that the knight will be able to sacrifice itself for the pawn.
Interesting, I wonder what other subscribers felt about this problem?
Tony generosity and small advantages
Actually I have just had another thought, after 41... Ke4? 42. Bxg5 Kxd4 White can play even more strongly: 43. Bf6+ Ke4 44. Kg4 and now Black really is lost, for instance 44...b6 45. h4 Nf8 46. Bd8 c6 47. Bc7
c5 48. h5 c4 49. bxc4 dxc4 50. a4 etc., the knight will probably end up on h7 at some point, and with the bishop on e7 (assuming it doesn't have other things to do like taking the a and b-pawns!) it will be trapped.
Anyway, the important thing to learn from this is that it is not even necessary to analyse this line, as a strong player would avoid it on general principles, and spend his time looking at something more relevant!
Food for thought!
Tony generosity and small advantages
Lets sum up Tony here please.
What happened to a lot of us is serious because we badly misjudged a so called"simple" endgame.
There were few general principles to be followed if ..
1.B had the better minor piece
2 BKing looked better placed than the WK
Although the BKn was better it could have become the worse piece to deal with a possible passed h pawn,also if we exchange the d4 pawn the WB becomes more active and no more the worse minor piece.
From the last 2 considerations.that came out to be right,we should not have
allowed the exchange of pawns because then the h pawn is to dangerous
and the WB becomes more active.
Instead the much less evident plan would have been finding a good square for the BKn,e4, and play some waiting moves taking advantage of the more freedom that B has in his position and the better minor pieces.
I meant you were very generous with the prize since your "class" did not do very well.