Losing on Time

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Today I lost a game on time when I was -2.8 as Black at one point. This was most unfortunate as it caused my rating to drop below 1500 again. Figure 1 shows the situation.


Figure 1

I should have played Qe4+ and then advanced my d pawn protecting my Knight as it moved. Instead I dithered around. I realised that I have a tendency to waste time on moves that I know I'm going to make. Those few seconds add up and in this game cost me dearly. I don't feel too badly about the loss. Early in the game I complicated the situation unnecessarily but managed to recover thanks to mistakes on White's part. 

I'd actually driven the White King across the board to where the pawns were and where it would have been able to assist in the promotion of these pawns. My King meanwhile was still on g2 and too far away to stop them. This meant that I couldn't exchange Queens. An enemy King needs to be kept as far away from its pawns as possible in an end game, something I ignored. However, despite this, I still had a winning position but time pressure overtook me.

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