Full game: https://lichess.org/73v0aYNPuiSr
I played the black pieces.
Scotch game (1. e4, e5 2. Nf3, Nc6 3. d4, exd4 4. Nxd4, Nf6 5. Nxc6, bxc6 6. Nc3, Bb7 7. e4, Qe7 8. Qe2, Nd5 9. Nxd5, cxd5) This structure is somewhat common, but both players made moves that were slightly inaccurate. Both players left the opening about even with no clear advantage to either player. Then on move 10, black made a mistake. They played Bf4. My response, Qb4+, gave me a clear advantage into the middlegame. This move attacked 3 key pieces, the bishop on f4, the pawn on b2, and most importantly, the king.
This allowed me, in the next couple of moves, to gain a 2-pawn advantage after the bishop blocked the check and the queen dropped the protection of the e4 pawn. The game then naturally developed with both players casting their kings on the kingside and placing the light-squares bishops across from one another. The on move 20, I blundered after a couple of mistakes. d4 was a huge blunder as it opened a line for white’s dark-squared bishop to attack my queen by moving to f4.
Since I had to protect my queen, there were limited possibilities, and I did my best to get out of the terrible situation. I traded the rooks, with check along the e-file, and then moved my queen to c5 from the scope of the bishop (21. Bf4 Rxe1+22. Rxe1 Qc5). Unfortunately, this left my light-squared bishop to be taken (23. Bxb7) with nothing to answer with on another part of the board. This left me down a bishop for 2 pawns. This position is playable, but white has a clear advantage.
I then came up with a resourceful plan to immediately attack white’s comfortable position. On move 24. I played Ba5, skewering the rook and queen. My opponent moved the queen to allow his rook to be taken. I then took the rook with my bishop. White took the bishop back with his queen leaving the c2 pawn unprotected, which I happily took (25. Qe2, Bxe1 26. Qxe1, Qxc2). This sequence led to a material imbalance. I had a queen, a rook, and 8 pawns while white had a queen, 2 bishops, and 4 pawns.
At this point in the game, I believed that if I could somehow trade off the queens, I could win the endgame with the large number of extra pawns. Due to this, I was happy with my position. I continued to improve my position by pushing his pieces away from active squares. Did this well as, at one point, the queen ended up on g2 behind a line of pawns. Eventually, on move 37, I was able to trade off the queens. It was the beginning of the endgame.
From here, I set a couple of objectives. Push my pawns to ensure that white will have to trade a bishop for a pawn to keep it from queening, prevent the movement of white’s a pawn, and cut the king off in as many ways as possible. After white’s bishops harassed my rook for a couple of moves, I successfully forced my opponent to trade off a bishop for 2 pawns by pushing down the d pawn. This made to be done the white king would not have been in time to block the promoting and losing a bishop is the lesser of two evils as compared to giving your opponent a free queen. Also, the position is still playable for white although black does have a large advantage.
The game was smooth from there. I was able to push my kingside pawns, trade off the pawns, and cut off the white king with my rook. The main idea of this endgame was to keep all my pawns on dark squares. This is to prevent the light-squared bishop from attacking my pawns. If my pawns had been on light squares, then white would have some chances to draw the game. In endgames, trying to limit the activity of the opponent’s pieces is key.
I then moved my king into an active position (56. Kg1, Kd6 57. Be4, Kc5 58. Bb7 Kd4 59. Bc6 Ke3). Notice how all my opponent did was move his bishop back and forth. This shows the importance of cutting off the king with the rook on the 7th rank. I moved my king along dark squares to ensure that my opponent had no possibility of forking my king and rook.
From here, I captured white’s pawns, inviting the capture of my rook as I knew that 2 passed pawns would be enough to promote into a queen and win the game. Eventually, my opponent gave up his bishop for a pawn and a couple moves later my opponent resigned the game, after 70 moves. (71. h5, e=Q# would have been checkmate)
1-0
Key concepts:
In an endgame, if possible, place your pawns on the opposite color of your opponent’s bishop.
Understanding how material imbalances will translate into an endgame will help determine when to trade queens and when to keep queens on the board.