Philidor Defense (8), endgame victory

Because today’s game has an instructive endgame and because it is the start of a new year, I am appending my USCF rating history in graph form instead of another endgame. The graph shows my progress and explains why I am going back to my previously successful opening repertoire. Hopefully, I can resume my chess progress with these old friends. 

Today’s game is an online tournament game. I overlooked the proper recapture of my f6-Knight w/ 8...Bxf6?!, which lost a Pawn. Otherwise the opening was satisfactory. In the early middlegame, I missed a complex, game-deciding tactic. This shows the importance of examining all checks, captures and threats (CCT) on almost every move. Later I was able to gain advantage of the exchange. A later trade of the Bishop for a Knight and Pawn brought on the endgame. I centralized the King and realized a winning endgame where my King was in front of my Pawn and I had the opposition. Winning from this position is easy.

 The variations and move symbols are Houdini’s (1.5 32-bit), diagnosed with ‘Scid vs PC’ at 20 seconds per ply. The verbal comments are my thoughts during the game and my interpretations of the analysis provided by Houdini. The score chart is at the bottom of this entry.

Employ CCT often on both offense and defense to detect winning tactics. Learn the standard endgame techniques so that you recognize an easy win. Another successful trial with the Philidor Defense.