In bishop endings with rook pawns, I always check first to see if the bishop is the right color to help the pawn queen. Here it is, so that eliminates one method of defense for Black. There don't seem to be stalemate possibilities, but White's king is in a tricky position. He can't play 56.Kxh7, for instance.

It looks like one of those positions where White has to make something of his kingside pawns. I'm thinking 56.g4 Rxf3, and now 57.Kxh7 is possible and looks more promising than 57.g5, intending to manufacture a passed pawn on g6 but opening up the h-file to checks.

Well, moves are no longer jumping off the screen at me. I had to look at today's position for some time before I even found a move I liked a little.

It doesn't look like white will be weaving a mating net here, in fact, it's white that should be concerned about such possibilities.

But what does stick out is the black rook. Is there some way to trap the rook? Maybe, maybe not. But we should certainly consider it. How about...

56 f4

This protects our bishop, giving our rook some maneuvering room and threatens 57 g4, which would attack the trapped rook.

Black has a couple of ways to save the rook, the most obvious being

56...Bxg2

But that then allows

57 Rg1 Bf3

Ugh. This isn't turning out well at all. So much for 56 f4. Time to regroup.

Hmm..., OK, perhaps

56 g4

is the right idea. Trade the f-pawn for the h-pawn and try to promote ahead of black. Let's see.

56...Rxf3 57 Kxh7

Now what does black do? White would like to exchange rooks here, his connected g- and h-pawns will be able to promote, while his bishop would safely keep black's b-pawn supervised.

I don't have anything more here, I'm not even sure this is the right idea. Time to check.

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If 60 h6, then 60...b5.

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After 61 Bf6, then with 61...Kf8 62 Re7 Ba2, it looks like black's bishop controls the b1-h7 diagonal and the white king has nowhere to go.

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Actually, that's not entirely true. I've occasionally thought about it, maybe <once> or twice before and certainly not as often as I have postulated about what certain female celebrities would look like in their nethergarments.

Where was I? Oh, yes, the nick of time. Odd phrase. Like "just in time", only a little weirder. Now that would be funny, a birth announcement in the Times (one for <hms123> perhaps) "To Mr and Mrs Time, a son, Justin".

In the starting position, white has two tempting plans. He can either play to trap the black rook with f4 and g4 or he can play to push his h pawn (backed up by the Be5's control of h8).

It turns out that there are problems with both plans. The immediate 56. Kxh7 runs into 56...Rxh5#. Ooops. Black stops white's plan in the nick of time or ITNOT as we should probably say in this internet age of LOLs and IMHOs.

And 56. f4 Bxg2 followed by something like Bf3 doesn't appeal either. White has split his pawn majority and will find it hard to defend his h pawn.

A slow move like 56. Re3 followed by g4 appeals, but it does allow black the one move he needs to play Kg8 (ITNOT). Then although white is still comfortable, the h7 pawn is defended and we still have work to do.

But as George Orwell should have said: "All pawns are equal but some are more equal than others". The key move is 56. g4 to exchange the white f pawn for the black h pawn. At first glance this looks like a poor trade for white. The f pawn is a connected passed pawn and the h pawn is a sickly isolani. Isolani is a lovely word, BTW, suggestive of being a resident of the mythical land of Isolus which exists somewhere in a rift in the space-time continuum between the d and e files. But I digress...

After 56. g4 Rxf3 57. Kxh7 Rh3, we arrive here

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And now we have another ITNOT situation. Black threatens Rh4 and Bf3 to gang up on the g pawn. So white needs to play either 58. Kh6 to bring his king back to g5 ITNOT or he needs to play 58. h6 when Rh4 can be met with g5.

Like some other posters, I thought f4 was a good plan. The idea is to continue by g4-g5. In a real game, I think I would play 56.Re2 (protecting g2, and covering b2 with both rook and bishop, which restricts Black's counterchances with the b-pawn.), followed by 57.f4 and 58.g4.

I've had a fresh look at this, and I think that after 56.g4 Rxf3 57.Kxh7 Rh3 58. Kh6 Rh4, White can try 59.g5! Bf3 60.g6+ Kg8 (otherwise Black loses his rook to a discovered check) 61.Kg5 Rxh5+ 62.Kf6, when Black is in a back-rank mating net from which I can see no escape.

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