Annotated chess game

4. Qb3 was new to me. I thought the best way of dealing with it was to swap, giving Joanne the headache of a doubled pawn, which I then ignored for the rest of the game: hardly consistent.

Prophylactic? With Glenda gone, who's left to possibly get knocked up?  

An early, and rather unusual, 3 minor piece endgame. Don't be surprised if at least one pair of minor pieces gets exchanged off shortly. At the moment, Black seems to have the slight spatial edge, and somewhat the more active game. There's not a lot in it, though, not yet anyhow... At this point, I rather like 20...Bd5, followed by manoeuvring the f6-knight to b6.

I agree 20....Bd5 looks stronger than 20....Nd5. I seem incapable of turning my spatial advantage into anything concrete. I think I'm right to concentrate on the kingside majority as my best chance, though?

That last exchange suited White better than it did Black in my view. Black still has something of the initiative, and a slight edge in terms of space and tiime, but in effect an active piece has been exchanged for a passive one.

I hate to think how often I allow disadvantageous swaps in the endgame, often under a wrong impression that the exchange is forced or unavoidable. Maybe I cna learn from games such as these.

Thank you  

That White should deliberately choose to enter a N vs B ending with the knight might make a curious impression if you have been brought up with a regard for the superiority of the bishop in the endgame. But White has chosen well. With 31.f4!? she would quickly have established her pawns on the dark square - unassailable by the enemy bishop, and then had a good chance of infiltrating the Black position along the dark long diagonal. A possible continuation was 31.f4 gxf4 32.gxf4 Kf6 33.Nf3! followed by 34.Ne5. What of the move played? 31...e5 is good...

Yes. I'd missed the danger to my a-pawn

Black had already made a slight slip with 32...Bd3?! in my view. Preferable would have been 32...Be6 combining protection of f5 with keeping an eye on b3 and c4. Having played the move, Black probably then ought to have responded to White's next by playing 33...e4 or 33...f4.

This adds power to Ion's comment re 32...Bd3? If it had been moved to e6, none of this would have happened!

Fact is, Black was "always" going to drop the piece after White had played 38.Kd2. Clearly the mistake had come earlier. I think 37...Kd5? might have been the culprit... E.g. 38.Kd2 Bb1 39.Kc1 Ba2 40.b3 and there is no saving the bishop. Black would have to try his luck with majority on the other side of the board. But there is a twist to all this. Having missed the win of the bishop, White could almost as well have secured fine winning chances with 39.Nxa4!!? bxa4 40.Ke3! (This was actually my first thought, before noticing 39.b3) This "pure" pawn ending is very favourable for White!

Not sure I follow that. The h-pawn has already gone.

Sorry. Misread the game. If 41.fxg4 hxg4 42.h4 would have been interesting. Of course, the game continuation 41.hxg4 doesn't give White that option.

Except for the three-fold, White retains a considerable edge right to the final position. Let's take it from Black's 46th move e.g. 46...Ke5 47.Nd3+ (Ne4 was also good) ...Kd5 48.Nf2! Bh5 49.Ne4 Kc4!? 50.Nd2+! Kd5 51.Nxf2. Black can not exchange pieces on f3, and although White still would have had a fight on her hands, she would have had very good winning chances (There's one peculiar line in which White ends up with K+3P vs K, but all 3 pawns trebled on the b-file!).

I was certainly happy for a draw at this stage, seeing that I couldn't get my K at the backward b-pawn and that W could bring overpowering force against my f-pawn.