MCC Endgame Group 17/08/2011

It is always good to look at endgames by our club members, and tonight and last time we have looked at  endgames played by MCC members. Tonight was a game from the Victorian Reserves tournament played between Beattie-Lekkas last night. The position that was of interest was:

In this position there was some debate as to what black's best plan was, though it was generally agreed that black was better. Plan A was to immediately bring the bishop to b4, swap minor pieces and leave white with a series of weak pawns that black's active rook would have excellent chances of exploiting. The main downside of this plan is whether black wants to exchange his good bishop for white's bad bishop.
An alternative Plan B was to probe a little on the king side, hoping to either close that side of the board, or to create a second front, possibly aiming for the invasion of black's king.

Candidate moves in the above position were:
1..h5
1..Kf7
1..Bf8
1..Bf6

They all have their points, and I would be interested to know what others would play in this position.

The last endgame group saw an analysis of the endgame between Jesse Jager and Justin Penrose from the Malitis Memorial, our Monday night tournament. We actually got a bit carried away, and looked at some theoretical endgames with rook versus knight and 2 pawns going beyond the usual time for the group to end. Hope you enjoy the analysis.