I read through your notes and agreed with lots of the points you made. Also, the people who have commented here already obviously make many of the points I have seen.

I find it interesting that you play Bg6 instead of just a developing move like Nc6 or Nbd7. If you are going to have doubled pawns regardless, wouldn't Nxf5 exf5 be just as good? Basically I'm just curious why hxg6 is better for you than exf5 would be?

As some other people mentioned, Be7 0-0 seems less than appealing. And Nbd7 0-0-0 might be safer, and to use a term slightly presumptuously, more thematic. At that moment, with his bishop in front of his B pawn, it would make it awkward for him to push queen side pawns at you very rapidly. Given the reputation of the Scandanavian to be aggressive and tactical (as your game certainly was), castling opposite sides, would provide you with a good window for attacking his king.

The Qxb2 Qxc2 maneuever, while it gained you those pawns temporarily, it really didn't help your situation at all, and soon you were returning the material in hopes of saving your position. Sometimes greed works out, sometimes it doesn't. In this case, it seemed a little odd to me I guess. You still had development to do, and instead youre snacking on pawns while he is organizing his pieces and getting free tempi.

I definitely understand the not wanting a draw hence pushing e5, but that is one of those situations where youre playing for a win even if you don't have it. Maybe it was safer just to play Qe7. As you said after Bd2, Qe7 was safer, but then you played Qd6 and after Bf4 you decided not to play the safe Qe7 move. Seems if Qe7 followed by Bb6 and Rad8 or something, you're in a fine position.

That was good stuff. I'm always learning new things and this game was full of good info.Thank You for sharing it with us !

Thanks for your encouragement vibavi!

I enjoyed looking at this game as I play the Scandinavian with Qd6, I have been having lost of problems with this type of variation, ie, white exchanging Knight for Bishop on g6, and the follow-up white attack on the rooks file.

On the subject of playing a new opening, I did that every game in a tournament last year. I was losing badly in my regular openings and was advised to switch from positional openings (where I thought I was okay) to tactical openings. Every morning and afternoon my higher rated friend would show me the theme behind an opening and then told me just to play it, against much higher rated oponents.

I had a great time!, lets face it, with carefull play we wont lose the games just because of the opening ( although we all have), with making normal chess moves we should be able to reach a position where we can fight it out, and even if we lose we can guarantee not to be bored!

I realise I am not at your standard of play but thought I would comment anyway.

Thank you for an interesting annotation and hope to see more.

Robert.

you guys are Great,matt very good comenting thank you i learn lot from this game hope you get a Candidate Master title very soon,dont worry i know you can do this

Good luck

vibavi attigala

@bykr, all I was saying was some basic chess advice. It is better to go with an opening that you are sure of instead of one that you came across a few days ago. However, with your comment on how he was not worse out of the opening is absolutely right. But, as I said, one would be safer to go with something he/she is more comfortable with, and this in turn might help you better play the game as you will have a better grasp of the main opening ideas.

Yeah, the more I look at it the more I am liking the option of castling 0-0-0. Thanks bykr

I don't see the game being lost in the opening,so the comments on knowing the opening before you play it don't really apply here.I play the Scandinavian(although I play the 3...Qa5 line) also and the above comments on keeping 0-0-0 an option are definitely something to keep in mind.

i want to play !

sacrificialmaster, you are right. Thanks.

Also, though this piece of advice may sound a bit stupid, play the openings that you are sure of. You said that you "briefly" looked over the Scandinavian before the tournament which could definitely be one reason why you lost. But that set aside, try to play openings that you are comfortable with when it comes to tournaments, and not ones that you happened to stumble across while reading an openings book. However, if you wanted to try out the Scandinavian defense, i recommend that you first try it on, well, Chess.com in some standard time control games in live chess.

Good luck!

Thanks Estragon! Valuable feedback, I appreciate it.

I am not familiar with this opening, but obviously White wastes some time with h2-h3 early and Black is okay.  I haven't analyzed the game beyond a quick look, but here are some things which stand out to me.

It's evident that he may have some eventual threat of Nc3-b5, so perhaps 6 ...c6 immediately.  You should try to form a plan of development for the rest of your pieces, not set in stone of course, but a general idea how you would like to deploy them and avoid any easy threats for White before you proceed.  Where White has not played d2-d4, Black should at least keep an eye on playing e7-e5.  So this also argues for ...c6 first.  Plus, either way, there is no rush to castle as he is lagging in development.  Why not finish developing first with 8...Nbd7, retaining the option of ...0-0-0.  If then he pursues the idea of trading his Nf3 for your Bf5, you will end up with a Rook on the open h-file and built-in attacking chances.

You're right that 13...Bd8 is weak, and ...a5 is better, but you should also be thinking about ...Rad8 and getting onto the open d-file, and then again perhaps ...e5 to follow.  I don't see the point of 17 ...Nc5 either - he easily avoids the trade.  Maybe ...Ba5 or ...c7 or even ...e7, again to free d8 for a Rook.  Finish developing all possible pieces before embarking on attacks - and ...Nc5 is a one-mover with no follow-up in mind which soon becomes a target.

I think your later problems stem from failure to take advantage of the chances he gave you to complete your development.  Bring your undeveloped pieces to better squares before moving developed pieces again if you can avoid it.

I congratulate you on presenting a loss here before the teeming millions - most players only want to show their pretty wins.  You will improve faster by inviting criticism, though - good for you!

Thanks Eliza. Just trying to do what any good chess player should do and look back from their games in hopes of becoming a stronger player.

Great annotations, Matt! I really enjoyed looking over this game and your thoughts on it. I'm not quite to a level that I can offer you much advice, but it looks to me like you've already found and learned from your mistakes in this one.