Annotated chess game

yeah,i dont see either how black can win in your variation but it was nicely calculated and nice try. Now after 53. ... a4 it doesn't look succesfully as a first glance but black doesn't have any other moves. maybe this can work. because white played Kb4 and i expected him to play 54. Nc2 but i dont know,both moves may be drawish or winning for black. it is a very painfull and difficult position for black because black really wants to win this game when he was 3 more pawns than white with a knight vs knight end game. Now i dont know what your Nd5+ will lead to but maybe black can gambit that c3-pawn with the point of getting his king into action. that pawn is a double pawn anyways. lets check this variation out: 54. Kb4 Kc7!? 55. Kxc3 and now black has two option,both look decent. first one is 55. ... Kd6 56. Nc2 and here black has once again a couple of options. Lets try 56. ... Kc5 (blacks king gets into action!) and here white has also a few options. lets try 57. Nb4 Kb5 58. Nc2 Nd4+ 59. Kd4 and uh i'm not really sure what's going on here but this looks a lot better. Black gambited the c3 pawn and now his king gets into action! And the best part is that black has a lot of moves from 55. ... Kd6 so there could be a better variation that i missed. but lets take a quick look at the other variation: 54. Kb4 Kc7!? 55. Kxc3 c5 56. Nb5+ Kc6 57. Na3 Kd5 58. Kd3 c4+ 59. Kc3 Kc5 60. Nc2 Nd5+ 61. Kb2 and here once again i am not really sure what black will continue with but it looks very promesing. so 54.Kb4 Kc7!? might have been worth playing

Not sure about 53 ...a4 since it does allow the White King access to infiltrate on b4 & will tie the Nb6 down to the defense of the outside passer on a4.

instead of 55. ... c5 i think black could have instead bring his king into action with Kb6 but this may work too.

After 55 ...c5: I am not sure, this just looks drawn to me... dead drawn. I felt Black had something to work with with an outside passer but, now... I cant find a way to press for an advantage. I think it should be dead drawn now... again. After 56 ...Nb4: Tricky since 57.Nxb4 is suicide, which is realized after 57 ...cxb 58.Kxb4 c2!!

oh but of course. and now since black has left his king at b7 the whole thing becomes more difficult

The game is drawn.... again.

well if both players know pawn end game well,this is a draw.

After 62.Kxc3, this is now a theoretically drawn K+P vs. K endgame. The pawn on the 6th rank (4th rank in this case), is a unique situation: While, the pawn anywhere else can have special circumstances (opposition or no oppposition), the pawn on the 6th rank (4th rank in this case) ...says that the winning King (in this case the Black king) has got to be in front of the pawn, opposition or no opposition. Here, the Black King is far from being in front of his pawn. Game is drawn.

Even if Black gets the opposition the game is drawn. White can move his King back and forth from c1 to c2, except when the Black King is at d3 or b3, then the White King needs to play to d1 (when the Black King goes to d3) and b1 (when the Black King goes to b3). You really should think of terms of critical squares instead of opposition. EDITED SUPPLEMENT: If Black can get his King to a critical square he wins, and if he can't get his King to a critical square its a draw PERIOD. Opposition is a tactical device that allows Black to get to a critical square in SOME situations. With White to move in the position White King on c2, Black pawn on c3, and Black King on c4; Black has the opposition but it doesn't do him any good. Your counter position with White moving to d3 after White moves to d1 (or White moving to b3 after Black moves to b1) doesn't contradict my statement, because there is absolutely no way to force White to move to d1 (or b1) when the When the Black King isn't on d3 (or b3).

I do think of the game as critical squares - but pawn endgames are more than just critical squares. I have explained how White can get the draw, which is the same explanation you gave. However, I think you misunderstand what it means for Black to get the opposition. Black gets the opposition, if he gets opposite the White king and forces him to move (zugzwang). This means that Black would have to move to d3 AFTER White moves to d1, or b3 AFTER White moves to b1. This contradicts your statement. In this scenario, it could follow 65. Kd1 Kd3 66. Kc1 c2 67. Kb2 Kd2, and whatever happens, Black promotes next move. ------------------------------------ EDIT: Sorry - maybe I should have been more specific. If Black gets to the 6th rank with the opposition, he wins. Key squares aren't infallible - a knight pawn can cause stalemate, even with the supporting king on a key square. As a general rule of thumb (for any non-rook pawn), the player needs to satisfy two of three conditions to force a win. (1) Have his king is in front of the pawn, (2) have the opposition and (3) have his king on the sixth rank (Müller & Lamprecht 2007:21). I could argue that key squares are just an extension of this, but let us not argue over how to finish an endgame.

well i am not sure what you are really arguing here. This position is a draw because of 65. Kc1 Kd3 66. Kd1 c2+ 67. Kc1 Kc3 stalement. however the opposition can favor for the one holding the pawn if the position is for example a) Black: King on c3, Pawn on c4. White: King on c1. If it's black's move it is a draw because white's king will just follow but if it's white's move then for example 1.Kd1 Kb2 2. Kd2 c3+ and now we see that since black's king controlls the c-file,white's king cant acces the c-file and block in so queening is unstoppable. this would also even apply if the position were as follows: Black: King on c6, Pawn on c7. White: King on c4. If its black's move then white can play carefully and its a draw but if it's white's move then 1. Kd4 Kb5 2. Kc3 Kc5 3. etc and black will win. But this does not apply if the pawn is on the edges, e.g. a- and h-files. then its a draw nomatter what. However on a different position: Black: King on c4,Pawn on c3. White: King on c2. we see that white has managed to put his king infront of black's pawn which is something that black must avoid because in any case,even if this was going on the c7,c6 and c5 squares this will still be unfortunately a draw. however if white plays wrong then black can win.

63.Kc2! Excellent play! The defending King must maintain the opposition whenever possible (Kd3), whenever that is not possible (like here), must move back while staying directly in front of the pawn. After 64.Kd2: If the Black King can get to c3 (in front of the pawn) with the opposition, this would be winning but, as it is... the White King will just shuffle from c2 to d2 (or b2 if the Black King manuevers to that side) & back again. So, Black tries pushing the pawn.

god i spent literly 6-8 hours commenting this single game. anyways gg.

three pawns should win, even if they are not connected. But how? I think the key mistake by black was c4, allowing white to attack them with the king, but I'm not an expert either. Black should have played making white sac the knight for one or two pawns. Now, don't ask me how, but sure c4 was kind of "losing temper", since you have to "go for something" only when you are sure you'll get reward for it. Anyway, an exciting endgame!

GK computer analysis gave c4 as a blunder... but the line it gave also led to a draw too. I think three pawns would win against the knight if two of them weren't doubled or my king wasn't in such a bad position. Oh well, thanks everyone for the comments. I'm currently playing the return match as White against my opponent and have played the Ruy Lopez back! Given the popularity of this, I may annotate that for you all.  

If you notice my comment on the second page, it was predicted that a storm will tear up your win and make it a draw. (Sorry, I just like to describe events with figurative language if you don't mind. I also do that on my annotations). Rather interesting that I purchased an endgame book from Jeremy Silman and looking over the last positions, I noticed a couple of mistakes. Sure, c4 was obviously a mistake, but you could have won simply by forgetting about your knight. Annotations, I think, mean that people can help each other understand chess and its complex logic.

65.Kc1: Remember to stay in front of the pawn (either c1 or c2 draws) when you cannot maintain the opposition. Here, 65.Kd1? loses after 65 ...Kd3! (gaining the opposition) 66.Kc1 c2!! (if this pawn can advance to the 7th rank (2nd rank in this instance) WITHOUT putting the King in check, it is a win!) 67.Kc2 (only move) Kd2! & the promotion square is under firm control... the pawn promotes & the game is won. As it happens... White plays accurately so... the game is drawn.