Benidorm: Typical Mistakes & How To Avoid Them (Part Eight)

BOTH players were happy to head for the following endgame in my round-eight game at the Benidorm (Meliá) U2000 tournament.

Guillaume Mallevaey (1761) has just captured a pawn on b7

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Black is a pawn down and White has a mobile pawn-majority, but I thought the presence of opposite-coloured bishops gave very good drawing chances.

In fact, even if the black b pawn could be put back on the board, at b6, White may well be winning.

Firstly, Black cannot prevent the white king penetrating the black position, and secondly the f5 pawn is a chronic weakness that will tie down the black king.

White won with a minimum of trouble:
32...Bd8 33.Kf2 Kf6 34.Ke2 Kg6 35.Bc8 Kf6 36.Kd2 Bc7 37.Kc2 Bd8 38.Kb3 Bc7 39.Ka4 Bd8 40.Kb5 Kg6 41.Kc6 Be7 42.Kd7 Kf6 43.Bb7 Bf8 44.Bd5 Be7 45.Ke8 1-0

My mistake in heading for this ending was a mix of over-optimism and a failure to properly assess the weakness of Black's position. Instead I relied on a general principle, that endings with opposite-coloured bishops, and no other pieces (apart from kings), are drawish.