I just played the following game yesterday in the final round of the
Midwest Class Championships in Chicago. The winner would tie for first
in the Expert section. During the game I was satisfied with my play
and my position the whole time, but when my opponent resigned he told
me, "You were very lucky, you had a lost endgame." Leaving aside the
question of his sportsmanship, I'm interested to know what the correct
evaluation of the endgame really was. Here's the game, with some notes
(which except for the theoretical comment to move 6 reflect my
thoughts during the game, not after-the-fact analysis). Skip down to
move 24 for the beginning of the disputed endgame.

Miomir Stevanovic (2015) - Geoffrey Caveney (2123)

1.Nc3 d5 2.e4 Nf6

As the Alekhine's Defense is in my repertoire, I have this convenient
answer to the Van Geet Opening. 3.e5 is the critical reply, for which
I am well-prepared, but I wasn't surprised that my opponent chose the
harmless 3.exd5 -- it appears to be more in the spirit of the usual
1.Nc3 lines.

3.exd5 Nxd5 4.Bc4 Nb6 5.Bb3 Nc6 6.a4!?

A novelty? Burgess' exhaustively thorough _Complete Alekhine_ gives
six moves for White here (Nf3, f4, Qh5, Nge2, d3, Qf3), but not this
one! He does mention a4 on the next move (6.Nf3 Bf5 7.a4), when no
less than a grandmaster game, Epishin-Cs. Horvath, Leningrad 1989,
continued 7...Na5 8.Ba2 e6 9.O-O Be7 10.Re1 O-O 11.Ne4 c5 12.Ng3 Bg6
13.d3 Nc6 14.Bb3 c4 15.dxc4 Qxd1 16.Rxd1 Na5 17.Bf4 Nbxc4 18.Bxc4 Nxc4
19.Ne5 Nxe5 20.Bxe5 Rfd8 21.c4 Rac8, "and Black's fine play gave him a
distinct plus" - Burgess. But I'm not sure if the same plan is right
for Black if White has not committed to Nf3 yet -- in fact, looking at
it again now, I see that 6.a4 Na5 runs into 7.Bxf7+! Kxf7 8.Qh5+ and
9.Qxa5! I played the "obvious" reply 6...a5, taking the square away
from my knight.

As such, I suppose one must consider my opponent's move order as a
theoretical improvement over Epishin's play above! Nevertheless, it
still doesn't seem like White gets much out of the position. In this
variation there are a number of traps if Black plays ...e5? instead of
....e6, for example the beautiful line, cited by Burgess, 5...e5?
(instead of 5...Nc6 above) 6.d3 Nc6 7.Nf3 Bg4 8.h3 Bh5 9.Nxe5!! Bxd1
10.Bxf7+ Ke7 11.Bg5+ Kd6 12.Ne4+ Kxe5 13.f4+ Kd4 14.Rxd1 with a
winning mating attack for White. As the Van Geet Opening is chock full
of winning tactical traps, I'm sure lines like these are exactly what
White is playing for with 3.exd5 Nxd5 4.Bc4, and it would be easy for
a player who didn't know the theory as Black to fall into one of them.
I guess the moral of the story is: don't play 1.Nc3 against an
opponent who knows how to play Alekhine's Defense! -- unless you want
to study the theory of 3.e5.

6...a5 7.Nf3 Bf5

Another trap: 7...Bg4? 8.Bxf7+! Kxf7 9.Ng5+ and 10.Qxg4 +/-. I
actually fell into this one in a tournament game once (minus the a4,
a5), which is one reason I'm so careful to know how to play this
variation as Black now.

8.d3 e6 9.Ne2

A very "Van Geet"-like move, but in such an open position I don't
think White can hope to get much out of such a maneuver.

9...Bd6 10.h3 Bg6

Not wanting to risk "castling into it" with 10...0-0 11.g4 Bg6 12.h4.

11.Nf4 Qf6!

When I found this move I felt very comfortable about my game -- now
White is the one who has to play to equalize.

12.Nxg6 Qxg6 13.0-0 0-0 14.d4 Nd5!

The blunt but effective plan of Nd5-f4 prompts my opponent's defensive
reply, which is better than 15.c4 or 15.Bxd5. Not a bad use for the
"Alekhine's knight" on b6.

15.c3 Nf4 16.Bxf4 Bxf4 17.Bc2 Qh6

After much thought I preferred this square for the queen over 17...Qf6
18.Qd3 g6 19.Qb5 or 17...Qh5 when White can prepare the exchanging
maneuver Ne5.

18.g3 Bd6 19.Kg2 Ne7

After some more thought I reluctantly rejected the natural plan of
....e5, whether immediately or prepared with ...Rad8, fearing it would
lead to a dead drawn endgame (opposite-colored bishops with no queens
or knights on the board), which would do neither of us any good given
the tournament situation. (We were both 3-1, another 3-1 was playing
the 3.5-0.5 on the section's top board, and a swarm of players with
2.5-1.5 were playing below us.) Despite that, the position demands
that White exchange queens, and Black cannot avoid it. But at least
the knights stay on the board!

20.Qd2 Qxd2 21.Nxd2 Nd5 22.Rfe1 Rae8 23.f4?!

My opinion is that this move was foolishly aggressive; obviously my
opponent disagreed, and judging from his post-game reaction the
further course of the game hadn't changed his mind. I suppose it's a
natural result of the "draw is no good" mindset, but such an attitude
is more dangerous for White than for Black in this position, I
believe.

23...Kh8

Part waiting move, part preparation for a possible ...Rg8 and ...g5. I
considered ...f6 and even ...f5?! to provoke the reply that my
opponent played anyway, but I feared that I would pay for weakening e6
after Bb3! with the dangerous threat of c3-c4 and c4-c5!

24.Re2

[W: Kg2, Ra1, Re2, Bc2, Nd2, Pa4,b2,c3,d4,f4,g3,h3
B: Kh8, Re8, Rf8, Bd6, Nd5, Pa5,b7,c7,e6,f7,g7,h7]

The punctuation for this move is I suppose the object in dispute. I'm
convinced it was a blunder, but when my opponent said I had a "lost
endgame", he must have meant the position after the following
combination.

24...Bxf4 25.gxf4 Nxf4+ 26.Kf3 Nxe2 27.Kxe2 e5 28.d5 f5

I admit to being somewhat partial to the rook in rook vs. two minor
pieces positions, especially in endgames, but here with all
objectivity I really thought Black's advantage was indisputable. Not
just a rook and two pawns for the two pieces, but two connected passed
pawns.

29.Rf1 e4 30.h4?!

Funny, for someone who was so convinced he was winning, he didn't try
the one plan I was truly concerned about -- Nc4, attacking a5 and
intending to follow with d5-d6! I spent 6-7 of my remaining 16-17
minutes till move 40 (!) on 29...e4, deciding between it and 29...g6.
Ideally, Black wants to activate a rook on the g-file via a rook lift,
but it's hard to pull off tactically. The conclusion I reached in my
big think was that I would meet 30.Nc4 with 30...f4 31.Nxa5 f3+ 32.Ke3
Rf5, activating a rook with threats of Rxd5, Rh5 or Rg5, and with the
tactical point that 33.Bxe4 Rfe5 wins the bishop. But I didn't
properly consider 31.d6 in this line, which might well be White's
best.

I would be very interested to know rgca readers' thoughts about this
position, especially after 30.Nc4 -- or 29.Nc4, which is also
critical.

After 30.h4, I saw what White was planning and intentionally let him
carry it out....

30...h6 31.h5 g5 32.hxg6 Kg7

....having seen that Black now wins the pawn back (33.Rg1 Rf6).

33.Ke3

I knew I could safely play 33...Kxg6 here, with every expectation of
winning. But I couldn't resist a sharp combinational alternative,
which has the benefit of drastically cutting down on White's
possibilities of confusing the issue by stirring up messy counterplay.
I couldn't see an adequate defense for White, and on top of everything
else it had the virtue of getting me very close to the time control
with a series of forcing moves!

33...f4+ 34.Rxf4 Rxf4 35.Kxf4 e3 36.Nf3 e2 37.Ne1

All forced. Here 37...Rf8+ 38.Ke3 Rf1 39.Kxe2 doesn't work, but now
Black's other passed pawn comes into play to deflect the king.

37...h5 38.Bd3 h4

Here my opponent finally took a long think. To his credit, he found an
answer which puts up a good deal of resistance in the resulting
exchange-down ending.

39.Kg4 Rf8 40.Kxh4

I was hoping for 40.Bxe2 Re8 41.Kf3 h3, when I had foreseen two pretty
wins: 42.Kf2 Rxe2+! (not 42...h2?? 43.Bf3!) 43.Kxe2 h2 and 42.Nd3 h2
43.Nf2 Rf8+ 44.Kg2 Rxf2+.

40...Rf1 41.Kg3 Rxe1 42.Kf2

Well calculated by White: there's nothing more than one pawn for me to
threaten with any rook move, so he can afford to wait one more move to
capture the pawn on e2.

42...Rh1 43.Kxe2

My plan was to capture the b-pawn rather than the a-pawn, so as to
leave as many of the remaining White pawns as possible frozen on the
same color as his bishop, which allows Black to use the king and rook
to penetrate on the dark squares. Still, the advanced passed pawn on
g6 is a thorn in Black's side, complicating the task of using the king
and rook on the queenside where the game will have to be won. On
43.Bxe2 I would have had to decide between getting rid of the "thorn"
with 43...Kxg6, or winning the b-pawn instead with 43...Rb1. My
intention was the latter.

43...Rh2+

Note that I also could have won the b-pawn with 42...Ra1 43.Kxe2 Ra2,
but then White would have had the defense 44.Kd2 Rxb2+ 45.Bc2, which
is a slightly tougher fortress to crack than anything White can set up
after the game continuation.

44.Kd1 Rxb2 45.Kc1 Rh2

Eventually my rook will have to go to the g-file to cover the passed
pawn and free my king, but in a position like this one there's no need
to rush, so there was no need to mess with 45...Rg2 46.Be4 with the
idea of d5-d6 and Bxb7. Even though I see now that that probably
loses, why give White more options?

46.c4?

White had to leave this pawn on c3 to make it as tough as possible for
me to break in via the dark squares. He is striving for something,
anything, "active" to do -- the dream is that I will somehow not play
....b6, allowing c4-c5 -- but in this kind of position the only
possible defense is to patiently play waiting moves and hope the
opponent can't find a way to break through. Some people just can't
stand to play like this, especially if the likelihood is that the
result will ultimately be a loss. The way I see it, it is honorable to
put up tough resistance for as long as possible until the result is
clear, but I suppose there is a mentality which doesn't see things
this way -- the same kind of mentality that could lead one to say "You
were very lucky" as the first words to one's opponent after resigning.

46...b6 47.Bc2 Kf6 48.Kb2 Rh3

Decisive: not only cutting off the king, but taking the d3 square away
from the bishop as well. With White unable to set up a fortress of the
bishop on d3 and the king on c3, Black's next three moves will be Rg3,
Ke5, Kd4, and White must lose a pawn and the game.

49.Bb1

This move and White's next were played with angry slams of the clock.

49...Rg3 50.Bc2 Ke5. White Resigns. 0-1.