Ended in 17 moves by checkmate. I'm not really that experienced so please comment/criticize on my moves, both had 1200 rating.

EDIT: Ah...wrong section, can I get this moved to game showcase? thanks!

 

Just some general suggestions on openings that I wish someone had told me earlier in my chess experience.

1.  Try to control the center with the e and d pawns (which you did a decent job of).

2.  Develop your pieces (knights/bishops) as quickly as possible.  If you haven't heard this before, develop means to get them off of the back row.  The queen generally shouldn't come out until after the knights and bishops (a lot of the time).  A stronger opponent would have made you pay for having her out so early.  I think 5... Nf6 or Be7 would have been a better choice.

3.  Castle...not really an issue in your game for you, but if white had castled before he attacked you it would have been hard for you to get his king as quickly as you did.

4.  Centralize a rook or both.  Basically, get one or both on the e and/or d files.  If not the center then an open or nearly open file. 

 I apologize if this is too rudimentary, but you seemed to be focusing on pawns (esp. 2... b6  I didn't understand the purpose for that move) and your queen.  It worked out for you, but a stronger player probably would give you a lot of trouble after the first 7 or so moves.  I learned this in a book by Eric Schiller called "First Chess Openings."  He lays basic openings out in an easy to learn way.  I'd recommend buying it.  Again, I hope I'm not talking down to you.  Good luck in the future.  Challenge me anytime you'd like to play.

7...f6 would've forked white's knight and bishop

Thanks for the advice, I have a few questions though.

When is it a good time to centralize rooks?? I always find there are too many pieces blocking it and don't really utilize them until endgame. I moved the pawns the way I did to fortify(were those bad moves???) and I moved my queen because I saw an opening.

 

Centralize rooks:

Your goal (a lot of time; there are always exceptions) should be to have all your pieces out and your king castled, so your two rooks are connected and supporting each other, hence your pieces shouldn't really be in the way.  Centralizing on d or e isn't an iron-clad law, but it does provide extra support for the centre.  Ideally, your looking for open files to take control of.  From there, you can double-up rooks on a file or you can take a rook back to the opponent's seventh rank and wreak havoc on his pawn structure.

NM Dan Heisman has an excellent analogy about development, likening it to a hockey powerplay.  For a powerplay to be effective, all the players have to be involved.  It wouldn't make much sense for the coach to order two of his players to stand beside their goalie and let the other three try to make a scoring play.  Chess is much the same.  In order for an attack to be effective, you need to bring into play all of your pieces as safely allowed.  Not only will this give you good attacking possibilities, it also limits your opponent's movements.

 

Queens, as a rule of thumb, should come out last, and at first, mostly to c2, d2, e2 or f2, as the situation warrants.  Keep the queen back until the game opens up.  Taking a queen out in a closed position (a lot of pieces still in play) is not a good idea for two reasons.  First, you waste moves moving your queen to safety while your opponent can develop for free and attack your queen at the same time (trust me, it WILL happen).  Second, your queen isn't that powerful yet, because it's mobility is limited and can be trapped very easily by a stronger player.  Beginning players will get flustered by an early queen menace, but stronger players will parry it easily and come away much further ahead in development.

 

  And finally, as a rule of thumb, you should limited the number of pawn moves in the opening, especially the pawns on the side where you plan to castle.  You need those pawns to protect your king.

 

Sorry, that's quite a lot to lay on you, but just remember these things right now:

1.  Control the center with pawns

2.  Make sure your king is safe (castling)

3.  Develop your pieces (knights before bishops)

 This is a game I played recently, which shows how disastrous an early queen, coupled with good development can be disastrous.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope this helps out.  Thanks for sharing with us!

Thanks for the help. You said I should limit my pawn moves in the opening to help defend my king, how would moving one of my pawns up a space ruin my defense? Um and why knights before bishops, I always thought it was bishops first because they have more range. I'll make sure I won't use my queen early and develop other pieces instead, but it's so hard to resist!

Moving kingside pawns -- I shouldn't say you should never do it.  Everything depends on what the position is.  But in a general sense, moving the f,g and h pawns do little to further your devlopment, and can cause weaknesses.

 moving the f-pawn opens a diagonal that threatens the king.  If the king is checked, his only option is to head to h1, where your opponent can mount an assault on the h2 or g2 pawn, knowing that you're trapped in the corner.  Best case scenario, you'll have to assign a piece to guard that area against attack.  So the move to f3 has to justify tying up a piece to defend the area that the f pawn was guarding before you embark on it.

 

 

 

 

 

In this position, there may be a huge problem, because the f3 and h3 squares are undefended and can be occupied by enemy pieces.  The h2 pawn is especially weak if black puts a knight on f3.  There are some openings where g3 is acceptable, if you plan to put a bishop there (fianchetto in chess jargon), because the bishop will protect those squares and establish itself on the long diagonal. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Actually, h3 does have its uses.  It can control the g4 square, a popular spot for enemy knights and bishops.  In addition, it gives your king an escape square in case black makes it to the back rank with a rook.  But be mindful in any case of making a pawn move until your sure it's the right move to make.

 

 

 

 

 You want to limit pawn moves in the opening for a couple of reasons.  First, and most important, for every pawn move you make in the opening, you are not developing a piece.  This is called losing tempo, and you'll hear about this a lot the more you play.  Essentially what that means is you're giving up the opportunity to develop a piece, control squares and establish your plans and giving your opponent the opportunity to do so.  Moving a pawn might make a tight, closed, defensive position for you, but without the development to back it up, a good player can break up your pawn structure with the correct sacrifice(s) and you'll be so behind on development, unless your opponent blunders, (which you should never count on) you won't be able to catch up.   The second reason is that if you move a piece and then change your mind, you can move that piece back if you want.  Not with a pawn.  Once it's moved, it's moved and you're stuck with it.

 

Keep in mind, these are only guidelines.  Every position you face will have its own considerations (same with early queen development).  But be very wary of moving pawns instead of developing pieces.  If you have a good justification for doing so, then go ahead.  But if you feel comfortable with a 'wall of pawns' while your pieces sit on the back rank, then I'd do some homework on it, and realize that it really only makes your position weaker in the end.

 

Oh, and the key word is generally knights before bishops, especially the king's knight, because it protects that weak h2 square after a kingside castle.  You want to develop knights first because they're more adept in closed positions and better suited to supporting your centre pawns.  True, bishops are long-range pieces, but in the openings, their range is limited, and in some cases, one of your bishops might not be able to move more than a couple of squares (the 'bad' bishop in chess lingo, meaning that the if your pawns are positioned on, say, the light squares, the light-squared bishop's movements are hampered by those pawns).  Bishops are more suited to open positions, and a pair of bishops in the endgame can be especially potent.

 

Once again, sorry for the long post, but I hope things are a little clearer now!

 

 

 

 

 

Ok, thanks for all the help! I'll make sure to up my game on what i've learned.

Cool, look forward to it!