Hey Everyone,

I thought I played fairly strongly against this player, but I inevitably got stuck in a situation I couldn't quite get out of.  I've taken the time to post some annotations where applicable. 

I haven't yet thrown it through a game engine for analysis, but have manually walked through it a couple times just to get a better feel for where I started down the path to failure.  All opinions / comments truly appreciated.

Thanks!

since I'm probably much worse than you, I will not give a full game analysis, but much more things like preferences. on move 14. it would have been interesting to see you to NxB, creating a double pawn, hence weakening the king's defense.  Good game in all!

I am not really a good player but i think you made a mistake in letting your d4 pawn undefended, and you on move 20 I would recommend you to actually push your pawn then Qg3, i think you could have won that game >.<

Your fianchetto bishop would be more powerful if you try to undermine the black pawn chain on the light squares. This probably means playing c4, but perhaps e4 could have been used to open that diagonal. So, I don't like 6. Nc3. It takes away the possibility of playing c4. This knight could have been useful on d2 where it is ready to recapture on f3 or later help out on the e5 square by going to f3. So perhaps 6. Bg5 followed by Nbd2.

At move 7 that e5 knight post isn't really that powerful. None of your other pieces are doing anything.

10. f4. Write in your notebook 100 times "pawn advances create weaknesses".

You continue to advance the pawns in front of your king through move 16 and also in that time lose a pawn.

At move 10, simply 10. e4 looks like it could get your pieces going.

Loomis:  I agree regarding my fianchetto.  I didn't make that diagonal very useful that match.  If I hadn't left my knight stuck on c3, I probably would have made the c pawn push to break it up.  Looking back on this, Nd2 definitely looked more flexible.  Lesson learned.  Regarding that e5 knight post - while I realize looking back that I didn't have enough supporting army to follow my knight into battle, I did like the multi-purpose intent behind the move.  I may have been better off waiting to make it for a few more moves.  As for the pawn weaknesses created from pawn pushes - I "usually" don't push with such haste because of this, but I let that rule slip this match unfortunately.

Tonydal:  I think I would have taken the first line you recommended, but started it on move 12 instead of move 13.  That pawn push I made on 12 was a waste anyhow, just weakened my king.  I will definitely strive harder to maintain central control in the future.

you should have tried to get rid of their queen and undertake as many exchanges as you possibly can, to loosen the pressure on your kingside

You had no business advancing kingside. You NEED control of the center or have it locked. If you couldn't play e4, then f4 and what followed was doomed. Your fianchetto and pawn structure screamed center. Work towards e4 and undermining d5.