'Bout time

'Bout time I played a game. Actually, I played two - won one, lost one that I should've won. Yep, they say the hardest thing to win is a won game. I was under time pressure, up a pawn in the endgame & blew it. Fritz awarded a tactic medal to both games. The first tactic was pretty easy -







White to move.

Find the shot.






I know that one is pretty easy for you chess players. The answer is Nxf7 (knight on e5 takes the pawn on f7, forking black's queen & bishop). I went on to win that game easily.

This next one is tougher. I was the black side against a good guest player (GuestFN). The game involved a lot of positional manoeuvring. Both of us were seeing eachother's tactical & calculated traps & ideas, which was pretty neat. We played very similar, it was like playing against myself. Anyway, here's the diagram -






BLACK to move.

Find the shot!







Things are pretty even here, with maybe a slight advantage in space for white. I played Nxe4+ thinking it put me up a pawn. It did and I played into a winning endgame but that was not the best move there. The best move is actually Nd3+! The other move, Nxe4+ did put me up a pawn and was answered by white's Be3 & the knight had to go back to c5.

The best move, Nd3+ actually wins & stops white from playing Be3 altogether.

Anyway, I dropped a two pawn endgame advantage & succumbed to a blunder. We both missed deep tactics. If you can spot the one white missed that would've completely won, you're a very good player! Comment this post if you can't find it & want me to give the answer. Here's the entire game if you're interested -