Hi, im quite new to chess and im trying to learn. So i dont have a very advanced thought process while playing, but maybe you could have a look and check out where my thinking is bad.

I made a few very obvious mistakes in this game, and i have pointed them out. It doesnt matter thought, what matters is the other moves.

Below is the PGN, paste here http://www.chess.com/analysis-board-editor.html


[Result "1-0"]

1.e4 e5 2.d3 Nc6 3.a3 Bc5 4.Nf3 d6 5.Be2 Bg4 6.Be3 Bxe3 7.fxe3 Qd7 8.Nbd2 f6 9.Nc4 b5 10.Ncd2 Nh6 11.d4 Bxf3 12.Nxf3 exd4 13.exd4 O-O 14.O-O Ng4 15.Qd2 a6 16.d5 Nce5 17.Nxe5 Nxe5 18.b4 Rfe8 19.Qf4 Re7 20.Qg3 Rae8 21.Rxf6 Nc4 22.Bd3 Nd2 23.Rh6 Nxe4 24.Bxe4 Rxe4 25.Re6 R8xe6 26.dxe6 Qxe6 27.Rf1 Re3 28.Qf2 d5 29.Qf8#
1-0


And, here is my thoughts:

1: I dont know opening theory, i just try to follow opening principles
2:
3:
4:
5:
6: Need my pawn for defence of my pawn, and better to double his than mine
7: Not sure where to put queen, but now it can go both directions later, and it defends the bishop.
8: Deny the square for his kight and gain space.
9: Send back his knight
10: Developing, going to f7
11: Dont want that pawn to advance, but if i take it i will undouble his pawns. So i try to take knight to remove protector of pawn, but didnt see knight. bad move,
now i opened his position up a little bit.
12: Took because i dont want him to advance it
13: Castle because i have to do it sometime, and this side looks less opened by the pawns
14: Hoping that he wont notice fork on e3, so just "trying"
15: Protecting this paw
16: I guess this center square is the best available
17: Cant decide what to capture with. but decided i want rooks on e file and put pressure on the pawn
18: Taking this file
19: Getting ready for the other rook
20: Second rook
21: Didnt see it comming, im a bit tired. Putting knight on c3 to open up for attack
22: Adding knight as attacker
23: Attack as planned
24: Recapture
25: Capture with rook but i guess i could capture with queen also, not sure which piece i want in the front.
26: Recapture
27: low on time: just put pressuring the queen
28: Just trying to advance pawn
29: Was low on time and just didnt notice. doesnt matter that i lost, just trying to learn.

Leaving aside better lines earlier or after.

17. ....Nxe5

Once you have this monster Knight the e-file is the last file you should be lining your rooks behind.

Your knight is the best attacking piece on the board - followed a decent way behind is his f-file rook.

Positionally I think the pressure would most often appear on the queenside - so I would think about what your plans are to be around protecting your vulnerable a-b pawns. ( I think there are few other good plans for white thus I would expect something like a4)
I think there is plenty of time to exploit his weak e4 pawn.

p.s. I really do not like f6 - particularly if you are going to tradeoff your white square bishop.

Okay thank you for helpful information.

So what do you (and others) think about for example my "reasoning" behind castling kingside? I usually just look to what side my pawns are less advanced, thus providing better seal.

And the f6 move, is it bad because it opens up the king? what if i had castled the other side? And what role does the white bishop play here?

(For those who hasent looked at the game, im black)

I appreciate all comments

You should think about that before moving the pawns (8...f6, 9...b5).
It blocks your knight and serves no useful purpose. e5 already had more than enough protection for the time being. If his knight goes to g5, you can drive it away with ...h6.

You need to consider your opponent's ideas before you make a move. At several points in this game you just ignored what your opponent was threatening.

Also, it's bad to make a move "hoping" your opponent doesn't notice the threat - you should plan on your opponent making the best moves and only make threats if they improve your position.

Black shouldn't play 6...Bxe3; the double pawns are not that attackable, and the extra central control+open f-file more than compensate. 8....f6 is a pretty strange move; this doesn't "gain space" as you say. I'd probably play f5 or just Nf6 here. 12...exd4 is not good; now the double pawns are gone, but the central control+open f-file are still there; you are not well positioned for the game to open up here and should welcome him closing it. White really bailed you out later when he played 16.d5; had he simply played c3, Bd3, Nh4-f5, you'd have been really hard pressed to show any active plan. I don't think you should be playing 21...Nc4; you allow him a big chance to close off the e-file with Bg4 and Re6, after which your king will be under pressure forever.

thanks again i find all of the comments very useful.

so, what about 9... b5, is this move ok? i would say that his knight is now placed very strong so i should not allow it... right? (as vempele pointed out, i shouldnt do this move if i intend to castle this side, but aside from that).

And also, what are the main factors you consider when deciding what side you want to castle? I would say that if villain have alot of forces developed on one side, i should castle the other side, and also the side where i have pawns providing better shelter is favorable. But this game as an example, and assume that i have pawns that are not moved on both king and queen side, and he doesnt have bricks developed particularly in any direction, what side do you castle then? and how do you decide ...

Most of the time the side you're castling on just follows normally from the opening that you are playing - you can't isolate the decision of castling from your overall plan of the opening and middlegame. In general castling Kingside is more common because it is faster and it is important to bring your King to safety and get your rook in the game as soon as possible.

In cases where you do have a choice, the main factor is which side you plan to play on - if you want to attack on the Kingside, you would castle Queenside and vice-versa. Though of course there are some cases where the opponent builds up a strong attack on one side and you choose to castle on the other side.

As for your b5 move, I don't think it is very good. White's Knight is not very well placed on c4 at all. It doesn't really do anything there and it has nowhere to go. And your advance b5 weakens this pawn, which could have cost you later.

ok i understand the castling stuff at least.

but i cant really understand why his knight is not very well placed. i can see that he isnt able to move it further or anything, but my thoughts have a belief that getting ones pieces as close to the centre, or even better, getting them close to the middle of the board and at the same time as close up in villains face as possible is the ideal. am i right or what? if so i would believe that since the knight is on the 4th rank, its pretty agressively placed since usually ones pieces are not as advanced as the 4th rank (no?), and even though it cant move too much, it still influence his opponent (me of course) to have reduced moveability for some pieces, now or later.

so what are your (or others) thoughts on what i wrote here? are my ideas wrong?
im not very skilled (yet) in finding concrete applications when deciding where to put my pieces, so therefore i rely on explanations as presented above to guide my decisions. for example, i may think that if i have a bishop on the 4th or 5 th rank its value increases as opposed to having it on the 2th or 3rd rank (as white). but i guess you guys rely on more accurate deductions like for example (if i put my knight on this square then it would mean exactly x and y for his piece z and k). is this a accurate picture?

His knight literally does nothing there. Is it threatening anything? No. e5 is beyond solidly guarded. d6 is beyond solidly guarded. b6 is beyond solidly guarded. It partially controls a5, but a) you have no interest in playing Na5, and b) if you move your Nc6 and he does, it's completely irrelevant because b7 is easy to guard. The piece's only legal move that doesn't hang is to go back to d2. I mean, it's not attacking anything, it's not preventing you from going anywhere you want to go, and it's not even threatening to move to a useful square. It's an utterly useless piece there.

ok i see.

exd4 just loses the game, 13. Bxb5! +-

true story

Okay so here is a new game by me, im back in black again. I still dont know any opening theory, just follow principles. Here in this game i felt that i got a bad positon from the start and the whole game was a struggle with his pieces in my face. I was hoping to capture his centerpawn-island early on but i never got a chance. And also, what happens after like move 30 or something isnt important, im low on time.

But what do you think? What moves could have been better, and stuff like that.
Thank you

1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.e4 f6 4.Bxc4 e5 5.d5 Bc5 6.Nf3 c6 7.O-O Ne7 8.Nc3 Bb4 9.Be3 Bxc3 10.bxc3 cxd5
11.Bxd5 Nbc6 12.Bc5 Nxd5 13.Qxd5 Qxd5 14.exd5 Na5 15.Rad1 b6 16.Bb4 Nc4 17.Nd2 b5 18.Nxc4 bxc4 19.Rd2 a5 20.Ba3 Bb7
21.d6 Bc6 22.Rb1 Rd8 23.Rb6 Rc8 24.Ra6 a4 25.Rb2 Kf7 26.Rbb6 Bd7 27.Ra7 Rhd8 28.Rc7 Rxc7 29.dxc7 Rc8 30.Rb7 Bf5
31.Bd6 Bb1 32.Rxb1 Ra8 33.Rb8 Ra5 34.c8=Q Rd5 35.Qe8# 1-0

Your move 3...f6 is just atrocious. It's hard to really comment on the game after move 3 because you just butchered your position so badly with one move - your opponent really should have put you away much sooner than he did.

You need to develop your pieces in the opening - in this opening, you can play 3...e5, 3...Nf6, or 3...Nc6.

If you can move both your center pawns ( d- and e- pawns ) two squares without losing material, it's usually okay to do so: 3...e5 challenges White's center immediately. Play might continue 4. Nf3 ed4 5. Bxc4 Nc6 6. 0-0 and White has compensation for the pawn ( now 6...Be6 poses the question to White as to whether to play 7. Bxe6 or 7. Bb5 ).

After 3...f6? 4. Bxc4, you're in serious trouble because you've weakened the a2-g8 diagonal and may never recover ( Qb3 is a threat ). Even after your opponent lets you off the hook with 5. d5 ( 5. Qb3 Nh6 6. Bxh6 and Bf7+ is close to winning if not already +- ), it's an uphill battle. That move 3...f6? is something you should auotomatically think is bad.

I'd chop off that light square bishop with 11..Nxd5 right away and instead of 17...b5, simply develop your last piece with 17...Ba6 with tempo ( indirectly attacking the Rf1 ).

White should play 19. f4 attempting to break up your center, but 19. Rd2? allowed 19...Bf5 so that on 20. f4 Bd3 and ...e4 but White is still better ( he can even march his king to d4! ). That means you should simply put your bishop on f5 and again White could have played better by answering 20...Bb7 with 21. Rb1 0-0-0 22. Rb5.

22..Kd7 seems more natural to blockade the passed pawn and also on move 23. White could have put you in hot water with the beautiful 23. d7+! and missed that when it was even better the following two moves!

Just before hanging your B with ...Bb1, you were probably still not quite losing since you're not down material and the pawn on c7 is difficult to defend with the bishop on d6 but White can play f4, etc. and envision marching his king to the queenside. Basically, White can torture you in this ending for a long time.

The game was quite ugly to follow but it's clear you need to sharpen up on tactics; actually, your opponent missed quite a lot too ( e.g., playing 5. d5 is just awful looking and not playing 19. f4 when it's likely no exaggeration that close to 100% of IMs and GMs would play that in blitz/rapid/OTB ).

Chess can be quite unforgiving: one bad move ( that doesn't even lose material immediately ) and it's sometimes over!

douglas: okay. i had a big struggle finding any move i liked on move 3. i thought that if i go with Nf6 or Nc6 he would just advance a pawn and i would have to move it to a unprotected square. and i didnt want to give away a pawn with e5 but i guess its possible i have compensation like bigpooch describes.

but thanks alot for these anwers, i will study them when i get some time.

also, im rated just above 1300 at chess.com , im not sure what its equivalent to in other more well known rating systems.

with 3. e5. white shouldn't capture e5, since you just exchange queens and now white's king can't castle and you're looking much better positionally while being equal in material (since you started out up a pawn due to opening choice).

As a fellow beginner, my thought so far, is I don't like 21. Nc4 because it's farther from attacking his king, plus offers up a trade with his bishop which will give us doubled pawns.

Could you explain the difference in positions that makes his third move bad? What bad is going to happen to us with this move that wouldn't happen other moves. It looks to me like he's developing his bishop, which is a good thing early.

Is it that b4 causes us to waste a move since we can't go anywhere but b6 without losing the bishop?

3. f6 is in the second game