Fundamentals (part 14)

Spanton (147) - D Ewart (148)
Highbury (London) Rapidplay 1990

White has just captured on c4 - who stands better?

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No prizes for guessing this ending arose from the Exchange Variation of the Spanish.
The analysis engines Stockfish10 and Komodo10 are not particularly impressed by the white position, but eventually agree White is slightly better. I suspect most humans would put White's advantage as higher than that - certainly White is the only player who can realistically hope for a win.
26...g5!?
Stockfish10 marginally prefers 26...a5. Komodo10 at one point sticks with 26...f5 for quite some time, but then switches to the text.
27.fxg5!?
The engines much prefer 27.g3, continuing 27...a5 28.b4 axb4 29.h4!? gxh4 30.gxh4 f5!? 31.e5 Kf7 32.Kxb4 with what they reckon is a large advantage for White, one line running 32...Ke6 33.Kc4 Ke7 34.Kc5 Ke6 when they continue to much prefer White, but do not come up with a continuation that makes progress.
27...fxg5 28.Kd4 c5+! 29.Ke3
The white king has to fall back as 29.Kxc5? is met by 29...Ke5 when White is close to being lost (the engines reckon Black is winning, but best play seems to lead to a queen-and-pawn ending in which Black is a pawn up, and is winning according to the engines, but the Nalimov endgame tablebase shows the position to be drawn).
29...h5!?
This seems to be OK, although at first the engines do not like it, but more natural is 29...Ke5.
30.g3
A better try seems to be the engines' 30.h4!?, eg 30...gxh4 31.Kf4 Kf6 32.e5+ Kg6 33.e6 Kf6 34.e7 Kxe7 35.Kg5 h3! 36.gxh3 Ke6 37.Kxh5, but 37...Kf5 looks to hold the draw.
30...c6?
Black seems to have a simple draw after 30...Ke5, and if, as in the game, 31.h4 then 31...g4 as Black has more reserve tempi and so can stop the white king penetrating.
31.h4 gxh4
Now 31...g4 is hopeless, but the text is no improvement.
32.gxh4 Ke5
At last, but too late - Black's reserve tempi will not save him as the white king can oscillate between f3 and e3 until the black king is forced to withdraw.
33.c3 b5 34.Kf3 b4 35.c4 a5 36.Ke3
The game finished:
36...Ke6 37.Kf4 Kf6 38.e5+ Ke6 39.Ke4 Ke7 40.Kf5 Kf7 41.e6+ Ke7 42.Ke5 Ke8 43.Kd6 Kd8 44.e7+ Ke8 45.Ke6 a4 46.bxa4 b3 47.Kd6 Kf7 48.Kd7 1-0