I've decided I want to take the game more seriously than I have in the past, and I figure a good way of improving is to post up some game logs. Here's a game I just played online (as white):

1. d4 b6
2. c4 Bb7
3. Nc3 e6
4. d5 Be7
5. e4 e5
6. Nf3 d6
7. Be3 Nd7
8. Bd3 Bc8
9. Qe2 Ngf6
10. 0-0-0 Ng4
11. h3 Nxe3
12. Qxe3 Bf6
13. Qe2 Nc5
14. b4 Nxd3+
15. Rxd3 a5
16. b5 Be7
17. g4 g6
18. h4 f5
19. gxf5 gxf5
20. exf5 Bxf5
21. Rdd1 Bg4
22. Rhg1 Bxf3
23. Qxf3 Bxh4
24. Rg7 Bg5+
25. Kc2 Qf6
26. Qxf6 Bxf6
27. Rxc7 Rb8
28. Rg1 h5
29. Ne4 Bd8
30. Rcg7 h4
31. Nxd6+ Kf8
32. Rf7# 1-0

Any comments would be appreciated, ty

Never allow your opponent to trade your dark-squared bishop in this kind of structure.

4. d5 was excellent. WP

I don't like your plan of castling queenside in the opening. Your plan of a kingside attack is too crude. Black can still castle Queenside. In this pawn structure it's better to castle Kingside and then play on the Queenside with b4 and c5. You should probably study positional play. You don't always need to play for an attack on the king.

Your move 18.h4 is awful. Black can just take on g4 and Black is winning. I don't really see many attacking possibilities for White instead of h4, but anything's better than just giving away a pawn.

Then Black made an equally terrible move 18...f5, opening the position against his own king.

Later you missed 26.Qh5+ winning a piece right away, but your position was pretty dominant by then anyway.

I also prefer short castle to long one, but long castle should be fine too, especially when Black had played Bc8. 11.h3 was a bad move. 11.Bd2, 12.h3 and then White's plan should be something like Be3, g3, Nd2, f4, etc. g3 is very important, you can't allow exf4, Ne5.

I did some analysis and then checked it with Fritz, but I only discuss things I saw myself.

fwiw:

4.d5 looks weak, better to develop a piece and keep the tension. 4.e5 seems more principled. (Turns out 4.a3 is theory but I would never play that unless I knew if was book).

Black gave you a gift with 8...Bc8?? wtf.

10.0-0-0 looks bad. You should be castling on the kingside and attacking on the queenside where you have space and your pawns are pointing.

11.h3 is a waste of time, forcing the knight to do what it wants to do anyway, why not just the natural 11.Bd2.

13.Qe2 is a waste of time (If you are afraid of the queen being pinned why not play Kb1 instead) After 0-0-0 you are commited to attacking the kingside so start the attack.

14.b4 is suicical. Bc2 is natural and good.

18.h4?? hangs the g pawn but black was nice enough not to take it.

20.exf5 makes no sense, you're developing black's pieces for him. Keep the tension. I would get my king off the dark diagonal (Fritz says Rg1 is best).

22.Rhg1 looks like the wrong rook. The Rd1 is doing nothing but being threatened where it is.

The finish was nice, greatly helped by black's self immolation 29...Bd8??

(btw, Fritz saw 26.Qh5+ picking up the bishop, and 30.Nxd6 giving the same mate one move earlier, and in fact black could have fought on 30...Be7 in the actual game)

Yeah, I forgot that a3 wasn't played. d5 is standard but White shouldn't allow Bb4. That's the idea behind 4.a3.

Thanks for the help guys. I'd like to think this game was an exception in terms of the number of stupid errors I made, but I'll be more vigiliant in future.

A few notes:

- I found 8. Bc8 bizarre as well, I didn't know if it was some master plan or if it was a level.

- I've wondered for a while why queenside castling is unpopular; I assume it's because the better location of the rook post-castling isn't worth having to use another move to get to that point in the first place, and because it doesn't facilitate a kingside attack?

- Doesn't 20. Rg1 leave the h-pawn vulnerable?

- I think I've gotten too used to exchanging pieces of seemingly equal value without thinking through the consequences (hence 11. h3 and 14. b2)

I'll post what will hopefully be a cleaner game tomorrow. Thanks again for the help thus far.

The idea of Bc8 is actually pretty sensible, since the Bishop is really badly placed on b7, pointing into the d5-e4 pawn chain. It makes sense to redeploy the bishop.

In simple terms, castling queenside makes sense when you have a reasonable chance for a pawn attack on the kingside. In this game that was not the case because black has no weaknesses on the Kingside and black can still castle queenside if he wants.

A bishop is better than a Knight. Generally you should only trade a bishop for a knight if you have a good reason for it.

Yeah, it's a computer move, I would never play it. Fritz's main line if black grabs the pawn is:



20. Rg1 Bxh4?! 21. exf5 Bxf5 22. Nxe5! Qf6 (22...dxe5?? 23.Qh5+!) 23. Qh5+ Bg6 24. Nxg6! hxg6 25. Qe2+ Kd7 +/-