On Monday I left you with this position from Adam A Taylor (2269) – Sanjit Kumar (2074) (Kingston 2026 Round 3) with white to play.

Black’s last move, 71… Rf1-h1, was a blunder. The four drawing moves were Ra1, Rb1, Rc1 (good to get as far away as possible from the white king to check horizontally) and Kh7.

Now White could have brought home the full point by playing for mate.

72. Kf6 Kh7 (72… Rxh4 73. Rg7 f3 74. g5+ Kh5 75. Kf5) 73. Kxf7 Rxh4 74. Rg7+ Kh6 (74… Kh8 75. g5 f3 76. Rg8+ Kh7 77. g6+ Kh6 78. Rh8+ Kg5 79. g7 f2 80. g8=Q+) 75. Rg6+ Kh7 76. g5 f3 77. Rf6 and wins.

Sadly for him, he missed his chance, playing 72. Rh5+ instead, and the game was drawn on move 85.

Not so easy, of course, at the end of a long and tiring game with little time left on the clock. Which is why you need to practise endings if you want to improve.