I am a mediocre player at best, and got myself into some big trouble in the middle game against my opponent. A few moves of mine are under specific question, but in addition, I would be very interested to hear what some of you would have done differently, and why. I was proud to pull out the win after he failed to capitalize on my tactical blunder by capturing my knight, but I set up a position that was dangerous in many more instances than just that one queen move. Please see my annotations for details, and thank you for any comments!

First of all, 21. Qxf7 Kd8 22. Qd7 mates in two.

Yikes! That was a bad miss  - thank you for pointing that out.

im a mediocre player myself... thank you for the well annotated game... i dont see why you think 15... h5 is a mistake on his part... i think his mistake is on the next move... correct me if you think im wrong, but 16...0-0 makes alot of sense too. the rook would protect the pawn on the d file and bury the king away from trouble (again, im a mediocre player myself, so take what i say with a grain of salt).

nice catch ricardo!!! i didnt see that at all either!!! i would have been more eager to grab the free gear on g8!!!

 

thank you pawnpower - I thought ...a5 was a mistake because I expected him to take the immediate knight and be up a piece. Is that inaccurate do you think?

 

If he had followed up by castling like you suggested, I would have been hurting even more - I'm glad he didn't castle.

23. Qxf8+ Qxf8 24. Rxf8+ Kc7 25. Nd5+ Bxd5 26. Nd5+ Kb7 27. Rxb8+ Kxb8 leaves you a rook, knight and pawn up in the endgame, and the enemy king is lone with pawns, an easy win.

That's another great point - I think I was too worried about his bishop to look for the obvious move there (and on move 21 as well) - thank you!

i don't understand, 15...Qxg4! should easily win the game 4 Black.