A Slip in the Endgame

I played a few skittles games last night against a new guy who showed up at the club. According to him, he hasn't played in a while and is "rusty". However, he plays pretty good. We played three games an the thrashed me in two of them.

I got lucky and won a game due to a slight error on his part. It's Black to move. Here's where he went wrong:



2...Rxa2 (He missed 2...d3 with an dead even game)
1...Kf6 (1...Kh6 is much better) ...Rf2+
3. Kg7 Rff8



4. Rhh6!(White has a decisive advantage in any line.) Rxh7+
5. Kxf8 (intuition) Rd7



6. Ke8 (Better is 6. Rg7) Kc7
7. Rh1 (7. Re6 is better.) Rd8+
8. Ke7 Rd7
9. Ke6 Kc6 (9...d5 is a little better.)



10. Ra1 Rb7
11. Ra6+ Rb6
12. Rxa7 (12. Rxb6+ is simpler.) Rxb3
13. Ke7 (13. Ra6+ is mate in 12) Re3+
14. Re6 Black resigns

The final position:





It all goes to show you that sometimes one pawn grab or slight mistake can cost you dearly in the ending.

cheers

Paul