Lessons From Bischofsgrün IV

IN round four, where I was White against Stef van Kesteren (1861), I reached the following lost rook-and-minor-piece ending.

I have just played 26.Rc7-c6

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Black is a pawn up, and has the better minor piece for play on an open board with pawns on both wings, especially when rooks are present.

Stockfish18 and Dragon1 reckon a reasonable consolidating move, such as 26...f6 or 26...Rfd8, leaves Black with a winning advantage worth about two pawns.

Naturally, there would still be a long way to go before the advantage could be turned into victory, but one way to virtually rule out winning chances was to play the game's 26...Bxd6?

After 27.Rxd6, the activity of the rook on the sixth rank means Black has at best a slight edge (Dragon1), or effectively no edge at all (Stockfish18 fluctuates, but eventually more-or-less settles on Black's advantage being worth a tenth of a pawn).

I was able to draw the game without any trouble.

LESSON: almost the last thing you want to do when playing for a win in an endgame is to swop off into a rook-and-pawn ending.