29 Qf7... why would I trade Queens at that point when my position is so much better than his? I'm not up that much material (Rook over a minor piece) to start trading down for no reason, right? I got my eye on the King, not the Queen. Unless I'm misunderstanding you.

31 Qf8#... this is what I meant to type in my original write-up. I put 7 but obviously meant 8 as I was already on 7.

I like your idea of Qg3 then capturing his pawn with my Bishop. That's something I didn't even see. Not sure if you read my post beyond the first paragraph but much of what you wrote about (like rendering his LSB useless) aligned with my thoughts. Once I moved my Bishop and left c4 unprotected it didn't matter anymore). Hopefully that means I beginning to think about the game better!

I meant that on move 29 you could have taken his queen with your bishop. And yeah, I didn't read all of your original post so if you already noticed a lot of the things I posted that's a good sign.

The thing with Qg3 and the Bxh6 threat is to view these as part of the general idea of a kingside attack. Those specific threats can be met, but you keep piling on and I'm pretty sure you'd be able to create further threats on the kingside that black won't be able to meet because his pieces are so poorly placed.

29. Bxc8 (his queen)...Nxg6 (my queen)
30. Bxa6 (his bishop)...Rxa6 (my bishop)

Or I back my Bishop out to a safe square on move 30 without trading, and keep his Bishop and Rook kind of stuck back there in no man's land.

Seems kind of pointless considering my position, right?

I end up reducing the game and momentarily burying his last remaining Rook but I don't see how this is better for me.

Oh wow, that's pretty bad on my part. Didn't even notice knight takes queen. I'll blame it on the late hour.

No problem. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something helpful.

Looking at my game again and I think the reason why I didn't see or consider Qg3 is because I wanted to stay near my pawn on d4, which is super weak and currently holding up my house of cards.

I didn't consider these moves during the game but now that I am... if I move Qg3 he responds with Qxd4+, forking my Rook. I can respond with Be3 and maintain the diagonal and protect my Rook in the corner. Then he can move his Queen to c3 or d3, between my 2 Bishops and also threatening either Rook he wants. He can then seemingly wreak havoc to my Bishop or maybe my pawn wall and open up that side of the board. From c3 or d3 he can also get his Queen back to defend g7 or g6, respectively. Of course his Knight is impeding his Queen right now so whatever response he wants from his Queen will have to wait a move.. everything I just wrote may be moot.

I can't calculate far enough in advance to know what this does for me but I do recall during the game not wanting to leave the d4 pawn completely unprotected. Which is why I never would have considered Qg3.

go back to this move and look at 26. Rae1+ again and analyze the position after Ne5 (which is black's only move).

He does not respond to 19 Qg3 with Qxd4+, because the knight is blocking the way. I had to recheck the position just now because I can't really trust my judgment from last night, but I'll stand by Qg3 there. And any knight move would then allow Bxh6, connecting your rooks and making Qxd4+ nothing much to worry about (and you'd be threatening mate).

After 19 Qg3 Nf6 actually turns out to be a strong defense. If white presses on with 20 Bxh6 Qxd4+ 21 Kh1 (blocking with Be3 is better but white would still be losing) Ne4! it's looking grim for white (according to the computer analysis I just ran the evaluation is -3.6 meaning black has an advantage greater than being up a bishop or a knight, so it's a winning advantage). Just Qg3 isn't that bad (not that good either), but white has to bail on the attack after Nf6. The computer suggests 20 Qe5.

I would have played Qg3, and after Nf6 I probably would have played Bxh6, and then after Qxd4+ I'd be a little nervous but I'd probably play Kh1 instead of blocking because I wouldn't want to give up on my awesome attack. Take my advice for what it's worth.

I did this just now OTB and it was a fun exercise. I ran a few options for my 2nd move just to see how they'd play out. I tried to make my best assumption for what foe would do.

Option 1 (pawn takes Knight)

27. dxe5...Kd7
28. Qxg7+...Ke8
29. exf6+...Kd8
30. Qxf8+...Kd7
31. Qd6#

Option 2 (Check with Bishop)

27. Bf5+...Ke7
28. Qxg7+...Kd8
29. Qxf8+...Kc7
30. Qd6+...Kb7
31. Bxc8+...Raxc8
32. dxe5...Bxc4
33. Qd7+...Kb8
34. exf6+...Ka8
35. Qc8+...Ka7
36. Re7#

Option 3 (Check with Rook)

27. Re5+...Kd7
28. Qg7+...Kd8
29. Qc7#

Ultimately I realized I shouldn't be worried about opening up the f-file for him since I failed to notice his f-pawn is pinned. So I was afraid of monsters under the bed again.

Continuing the attack with the Rook (option 3) looks like the best way to close. At least the quickest as far as I can tell. Option 2 sucks and just wastes time. Option 1 is not bad. There are many more combinations I can try to do but I think this is good. Within moments of looking at Option 1 I realized his F-pawn cannot move and I got the point. But it was fun to close these Options out anyway.

nice job although it's Qe7, not Qc7, but that's obviously a typo

Yeah I wrote e on my post-it but it looks like a c so I mis-typed.

Yikes. A resignation loss in 12 moves.

Uggggggg. Another ****-up with my Queen. I thought I was past this. I though I had a really good setup, too, before he played 9.Qb3.

Thoughts:

1. f6. Not sure how to respond here.

2. d5. Center square, and I try to block off his g2-a8 diagonal.

5. e4. Probably a mistake but I like shoving the center when I can and also threatening his Knight.

6. Bf5. More control of e4 along with development.

7. e3. Looks like he wants to open up that diagonal for his Queen. I figure I need to move my undeveloped Knight to e7 since h6 doesn't look great for it. Though upon review h6 looks completely safe for this Knight, and still protects the developed Bishop. Derp. Since I think I need to get my Knight to e7 soon, I figure I'll develop my final Bishop now so he's not blocked. This is probably a very bad move now that I think about it.

8. Qd7. I get my Queen in a position to protect the Bishop because I expect him to threaten it with the pawn next. This also gets me closer to castling if I want it.

9. Qb3. He plays this and I realize how unprotected my Queen side is. I respond with Na5 which is probably wrong. I should probably play Be6. Then follow with Rab8 if he captures my pawn.

10. Qb5 is pure idiocy. I thought I forced a trade-at-best for him. Of course I failed to notice my damn Queen is unprotected. lol me. Would be nice if I had my pawn on a3 though. Resign shortly after.

After 1 Nf3 you have plenty of options. d5 or c5 are fine as is Nf6 or even something like g6 followed by Bg7 if you wanted to try that kind of a setup (just as an example of something completely different), but f6 doesn't seem like a good move since it takes away that square for your knight. How often do your opponents play anything other than 1 e4? You'll have to develop responses to other moves too but at least from what I've seen in your games, everyone plays e4 so it's understandable if other moves are putting you in unfamiliar territory.

Makes sense to me.

This looks reasonable.

You're also set up to play Bh3 with the option to trade off the bishops later. Without the light squared bishop the light squares around his king are weak I think (but that's a more advanced concept and I might not be understanding it correctly).

Na5 hangs the pawn so that's no good. You could finish up your development with Nge7 and that way your bishop isn't tied down and Bh3 remains an option.

Edit: Oh, the b7 pawn is also hanging. I don't see any way to protect them both so I think you just have to give up the b7 pawn and if Qxb7 Rb8. So maybe instead of Qd7 the previous move Qc8, then complete development / protect the d pawn with Nge7, then castle.

Past a complete beginner level, which you're already past, hanging the queen like that basically ends the game.

After 1...f6, White should probably play 2. e4 and transpose into structures that punish your inability to develop the knight to f6. 2. g3 is too passive.

I prefer the positions that result after 6...f5, but I like the reasoning you've given for 6...Bf5.

White should've played the pawn break c3-c4 at some point, trying to liquefy that imposing central pawn chain of yours, allowing him to bite down on the e4 square with two pieces. (That's part of why I like 6...f5.)

9. Qb3 is nothing to fear. After 9...Nge7 (protecting the d5 pawn) 10. Qxb7 Rb8 11. Qa6 I like your position a lot more. You have solid compensation for the pawn and h7-h5-h4/g7-g5 ideas are floating around. Notice that White can't play c3-c4 anymore here because of Nb4, forking the queen and the c2 square. 9...Be6 is also fine.

1...f6 is ugly. He obviously plays this Nf3, g3, strategy against almost anything, but here he should play 2.e4, to take advantage of your weak first move. Then 2...e5 is bad because of 3.Nxe5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damiano_Defence

6...Bf5 is not such a good move. There is nothing to do on the b1-h7 diagonal. Your own e4 pawn is in the way, and even if it moves, there are no real targets there. How about 6...f5 instead. Then you can play ...Nf6 and bring out your pieces normally.

Another idea is 6...Be6, planning ...Qd7 and ...O-O-O. Note that when he plays Qb3, if your bishop were on e6 instead of f5, you can just go O-O-O.

Yeah I shouldn't have panicked so much and just played Nge7. I was worried about him forking my Knight and Rook but I can simply move my Rook over one (protected by the Knight) and he's just not going to trade his queen for either of those pieces at that point so who cares. If anything, he's got his Queen overdeveloped too early. Dammit.

Steve, I could have played Qc8 instead of Qd7 but of course at the time my ancillary goal was to enable castling next move if I wanted it.

The only other benefit of playing Na5 that I saw was that if he fell asleep, I take his Queen. And since I didn't recognize Ne7 as the best move there... I felt at least this gave me desperate hope of him falling asleep.

I did take a minute after losing my Queen to see if I could realistically continue but he had too many options and I simply didn't see myself drawing or winning against a player rated in the 1000s with a several hundred game sample size.

Ah well every once in a while we all have to take our beating.

Rei pointed this out and I can see its merits. I'm at the stage where I'm trying to balance developing, pushing pawns, and castling. Sometimes I think if I push a pawn I'm wasting time by not developing and getting closer to castling. It's a struggle right now as I've heard it's typically strong to castle within 10 moves.

I need to realize sometimes it's OK to push a pawn in lieu of developing. Hell, even I did this in this game by advancing my e-pawn twice within 5 moves. So my thoughts can be hypocritical at times. I'll get better.

5...e4 isn't quite the same, because it's made with tempo--it forces White to move his knight a second time too.

It's easy to fall prey to fancy-play syndrome with pawn moves in the opening, and at the ~1000 level you'll probably end up doing more harm than good with them, so I don't mind the lack of 6...f5 at all.

As a general rule, think about how "open" the position is. In open positions, try to castle/develop quickly. Here, though, you have a big space advantage, and the position is semi-closed. White can open up the position with c2-c4, but after 6...f5 7. c4 Nf6, you're both even in development.

I'm so f bad. I'm getting to the level where my fundamentally-weak openings are getting hammered by 1000-level players. I need to memorize this stuff. I've also got no clue what I'm doing with my Knights and seem to do worse when I develop them early (though I could be mistaken). I'm consistently unable to castle within 10 moves, which is irritating. I'm not really able to get by on midgame tactics.

Yesterday was a bad day and I played really poorly with 0 wins and 3 losses. Today I'm 2-0 but one was an abandoned game and the other I was getting crushed and got lucky to win. It's hard for me to evaluate my losses because I can't see what I did wrong (otherwise I probably wouldn't have done it in the first place), but I'll try to do that here. Someone mentioned I need to evaluate my losses more often.

Here's a 32-move CM loss to a guy 83 points my superior.

11.Nd5 is a stupid move on my part and I realized shortly after. I've now pinned my Knight instead of simply moving my Queen. And it's not like my Knight has future access to any good squares yet anyway. Dumb.

16. Rae1. See if I can discover an attack on his Queen next and catch him sleeping.

17. Bxc4. I even "trick" him here and see if he falls for the bait of capturing my Bishop with his pawn. He doesn't - and he moves his Queen. Shucks.

20. Re3. I'm recalling what Steve said about the Kingside attack and seeing if I can get something started with my Rook. Slim chance as he should be able to see my plan from a mile away with the clanky moves of the Rook. Re4 might be better so I can get my other Rook to Re3 and maybe send them both over. Of course my King can't breathe so I can't leave an easy CM for him.

From here it's neither of us knowing what to do with our Rooks.

I play 24.Qe3 to again see if I can get a cheap CM. He responds correctly by forcing CM if I move. I back off but stay on this diagonal and also protect the first Rank.

30. Qxb4 is a mistake as I've given up protection of my King. I should take with Rook here if anything. He closes out correctly.

31. Kh1 is a clear mistake. Instead of burying myself I should play Kf1. I even thought about this but for some reason did not play it. Derp.

This match appeared pretty even late and I considered offering a draw but did not. I figured it would be good practice, probably for both him and me. And, though I lost, I'm glad I finished it. Will post the other games later.

Memorizing openings is pretty counterproductive at this stage; that time would be much better used on tactics. But you should spend 5-10 minutes looking up any unfamiliar or confusing openings (Googling the moves will turn up a relevant Wiki page) and acquainting yourself with its basic traps, principles, and continuations.

5...c5 is an impetuous move on Black's part, weakening the d7 pawn and creating a hole on d5. Taking advantage of these weaknesses should soon become our focus.

9. Bg5. Would prefer Nc3 immediately. That d5 square is important.

11. Nd5. Qd3 is better. Nd5 allows Black to fix his weaknesses with ...Nxd5. After you retake with exd5, he no longer has a gaping hole at d5 or a weak pawn at d6.

12. Qd3 and 13. Qd4. I'd prefer Nxe7+ for the same reasons I preferred Qd3 on move #11. We don't want to allow ...Nxd5.

14. Bxe7. Gives Black the chance to win a piece by retaking on e7 with his knight.

15...Bf5. Black can just take the d5 pawn.

16. Rae1. Solid. Would use the kingside rook, though. Your queen's rook could be useful on the c or d files; now your king's rook won't be very active.

17. Bxc4. Bd1 wins a piece by force, no tricks needed.

23. Rc6. to the active rook play over the past few move, but this loses a pawn.

26. Rxd6. Gives Black the chance to fork your rook and the back-rank mate square with ...Qe7, but he misses it.

30. Your analysis of move 30 is correct, but you'd have lost after Kf1 too.

This opening wasn't so bad. I would play 6.Qa4 (or maybe 6.Qd1) instead of 6.Qc4. You really want your bishop on c4 there. It's also good to pin the d7 pawn. Note that if he plays ...a6 and ...b5, this is bad for him because you can play Bxb5, and if he plays axb5 you have Qxa8.

14.Bxe7 loses a piece for you, but he doesn't see it. If he had played 14.Nxe7, you don't get to take his knight. You had to play 14.exd5 Bxg5 15.dxe6 fxe6 where you end up only down a pawn.

You could have avoided this. After he played 11...b5 you should take 12.Nxe7+. There is no threat to your queen because it's check. Then 12...Qxe7 13.Qc3 and now his knight is pinned. If he tries 13...Nxe4 14.Bxe7 Nxc3 15.bxc3 (not falling for 15.Bxf8 Nxe2+ 16.Kh1 Kxf8) you are up a piece. Same with 13...b4 14.Bxf6 bxc3? 15.Bxe7.

Instead of 30.Qxb4 you had 30.Rxb4, but your king is a little unsafe after 30...Qb1+ 31.Kf2. You can avoid this with 30.h3 so that you have a hideout on h2 for your king if needed. You're up a pawn, his b4 pawn isn't going to be saved, and that pawn on d5 is threatening to run.

As played, 31.Kf1 doesn't help. 31...Qe2+ 32.Kg1 Qd1+ 33.Kf2 Re2+ and he's going to either get checkmate soon, or win your queen.

Here's some comments:
11.Nd5 - this almost loses a piece due to 11.-Nxd5 and if 12.Bxe7 then Nxe7. White has a save in 12.exd5 though, hitting the e6 bishop.
11.-b5, why didn't you take it? You could also consider Nxe7+ at some point here to unpin.
13.Qd4 - this would be a good time to throw in 13.Nxe7+ Qxe7 14.Qd4 with a nice position
14.Bxe7? - should lose a piece, 14.exd5 would limit the losses
14.-Qxe7? - 14.-Nxe7 leaves Black with an extra piece
16.Rae1 - the wrong rook. The f1 rook doesn't really have future but after Rfe1 the a-rook could be useful on d1 or even on the a-file if it opens some day after a4
16.-Bxc2? - super careless, ignoring your last move
17.Bxc4? - 17.Bd1 instead wins a piece (17.Bd3 Qxe1 18.Rxe1 cxd3 is less accurate)
23.Rc6? - he could just play Rxc6 dxc6 Qxc6 right?
24.Qe3 is good, trying to make sense of your earlier rook lift. It's important that after 24.-Rxc6 25.dxc6 Qxc6 26.Qh6 there is no Qc1 mate since the Q covers the square from h6
26.Rxd6 - you should note that your back rank is wide open and take care. 26.-Qe7! would hit the d6 rook and threaten Re1+ mating so he's win a rook.
30.Qxb4 - you should play 30.Rxb4, the K is safe enough after Qb1+ 31.Kf2 (Re5-Rf5 stuff isn't going to work since you can just play Rf4 if that ever happens)
31.Kh1 - 31.Kf1 loses too but at least it's a few more moves, for instance 31.-Qe2+ 32.Kg1 Qd1+ 33.Kf2 Re2+ 34.Kg3 Qd3+ 35.Kg4 Qf5+ 36.Kg3 Re3+ 37.Kh4 Qh5 mate
Oh, and using CM is confusing since it usually refers to chess master not checkmate.

Here is the rematch with the guy who just beat me. This time it's a 39-move Resignation loss on my part.

3. Nf6. I hate hate hate playing this because I simply don't know wtf I'm doing. After I play this I already feel like I'm losing. No earthly idea what I'm doing here. This is why I play f6 or c3 often here. Help!?

5. Nxd5 is ****ing stupid. I literally don't know what I'm supposed to play here. Na5?? Waste time moving my Knight a second time already?

9. e4. I'm dumb. Do you like my conical hat?

18. Qg6+. No idea why he doesn't take my free Knight. I'm so bad that my opponents don't even have to take free minor pieces. Sigh.

21. Nf3+. A forcing move here. Let's see what happens. Daddy's desperate. I considered taking with my Rook but he can just play Be4 next. Also I kinda want to get rid of his Queen if I can. And my Rook ends up on a nice rank with all those minor pieces there. Too bad they're all backed up by pawns

25. b5 is probably a waste of time at this point. Need to be more aggressive here.

26-32. I start moving pawns forward toward his King. But I don't really know wtf I'm doing in the end.

38.Bxg3 is a dumb desperation move, made mostly in anger. I resign shortly after.

Yeah don't play 3...Nf6 there unless you want to do some heavy memorization of moves which aren't going to make much sense to you otherwise.

3...Bc5 is the other main move but that can get complicated too. If you want to nit it up play 3...Be7 and he can't really stop ...Nf6 and ...O-O soon.