Another See-Sawing Game

This is a sad game in which fortunes fluctuated and at one point I was + 4.8 up. However, the turning point came on move 24 when I played 24. Nf4?? See Figure 1.

Figure 1: game

Even though the computer had been recommending that I play Ne7+ for some time, it was crucial to play it here because my Knight had to move after being threatened by the pawn. Once I played my Knight to f4, I lost my e pawn and that was that. My excuse is that I'd drifted into mild time trouble and played the Knight move instantly without regarding the consequences.

I think this loss came down to time management. I was down to 2:26 on the clock versus Black's 7:10. This was too wide a discrepancy. I'd been playing some untimed games against the computer on my phone the night before and perhaps this didn't help. I need to play with time controls even against the computer.

Losing on Time

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.