Sometimes, you play a game of chess, and something weird happens. In this game, my opponent and I started trading pieces in the midgame, we were balanced and largely symmetrical. And then, it became apparent that neither of us had lost any pawns! It felt almost like an unspoken thing between the two of us in this rapid 10 minute game, but we ended up not giving up or taking any pawns until all pieces other than the king were off the board.
I am the first to admit that I find king and pawn type endgames non-trivial. As can be seen in the evaluation bar, it can fluctuate wildly between winning, draw, and losing. When there are many pawns and the position is balanced, one wrong move can mean that a perfect sequence, which relates to a count of many moves before a pawn can be promoted, can be lost. In this game, I won mostly as I blundered fewer times than my opponent in the endgame, but I could easily have lost. The insight from this game is that I need to brush up on my endgame technique!
I hope you enjoyed the video, and thanks for watching!
Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/a/2axokC3eAS
[Event "Rated Rapid game"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/QxSuvHhT"]
[Date "2021.11.28"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Sp4c3R4c3r"]
[Black "vitualis"]
[Result "0-1"]
[UTCDate "2021.11.28"]
[UTCTime "04:20:32"]
[WhiteElo "1536"]
[BlackElo "1552"]
[WhiteRatingDiff "-6"]
[BlackRatingDiff "+8"]
[TimeControl "600+5"]
[ECO "C50"]
[Opening "Italian Game: Giuoco Pianissimo, Normal"]
[Termination "Normal"]
[Annotator "lichess.org"]
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. d3 Nf6 {C50 Italian Game: Giuoco Pianissimo, Normal} 5. O-O d6 6. h3 O-O 7. Bg5 h6 8. Bxf6 Qxf6 9. Nc3 Nd4 10. Nxd4 Bxd4 11. Nd5 Qd8 12. c3 Bb6 13. Qh5 Qg5 14. Qxg5 hxg5 15. Ne3 Bxe3 16. fxe3 Be6 17. Bxe6 fxe6 18. Rxf8+ Rxf8 19. Rf1 Rf6 20. Rxf6 gxf6 21. Kf2 Kg7 22. Kg3 d5 23. exd5 exd5 24. Kg4 c5 25. Kf5 Kf7 26. d4 cxd4 27. exd4 e4 28. Kg4 Kg6 29. b3 f5+ 30. Kg3 f4+ 31. Kf2 Kf5 32. g4+ Kf6 33. a3 b5 34. a4 bxa4 35. bxa4 Ke6 36. Ke2 Kd6 37. Kd2 Kc6 38. Kc2 e3 39. Kd3 Kb6 40. Ke2 Ka5 41. Kf3 Kxa4 {White resigns.} 0-1
