Hey, Chessplayers

I ask you to analyze my game again. Especially I am interested in the opening and  what should white aim to do in the endgame postion.

Hey guys, any activity?:)

4.e5
So this is now an advance french structure.  White will try to generate attacks on the kingside with his extra space there and black will pressure the pawn chain mainly at d4.

So we see this is a less favorable way to enter this structure because your knight on c3 blocks the c pawn from supporting d4 and it also doesn't help white's attacking ideas.  Black's most logical move is 4...c5 now.

Instead it was better to just contine development with a move like 4.Nf3

4...g6
Other than being yet another pawn move (the opening is about bringing your pieces out) this doesn't help pressure d4 and with another pawn on a light square, black's dark squares look tender now.

8. 0-0
I like this move.  I might consider also 8.h4 (with attacking ideas) or 8.Ne2 also with a kingside attack in mind (Ne2 frees the c pawn to defend d4 while brining another piece to the kingside).

10.Bf4
The bishop was much better on g5 where it pinned the knight and was hitting those dark squares.  Bf4 is a solid but passive move.  Better is 10.dxc5.  Yes the c5 knight looks active now, but notice it's black only well placed minor piece!  In contrast after Bf4 his e7 knight and queen are more free and you lost an active minor piece.

16.Nd4
Nd6 is a good outpost I think but if you play it here there's the tactic d4 forking your bishop and knight.  So Nd4 was a good choice for tactical reasons.

19.Na4
This doesn't look bad to me, but I wonder if you considered completing your development with a queen move (connecting your rooks).

20.c4 / 22.Bxc4
You're right about having better moves available here.

23.a3
Not a bad tactical idea.  Black can try to sidestep it though with 23...Re8 and the skewer is gone but your pieces are still forked.  If I was going to save one of them by the way it would be the bishop because of all those light sqaures around my king (and the knight on the rim is harder to make active).

24...Nc5
Yes, black blundered.


The end of the game looks even.  Black's pawns are doubled on the a file but your b pawn is backward. Both sides look too solid for either to win.

Thank  a lot for your commentary.

Now I need some time to comprehend your ideas and to recall the game

I agree with a lot of the previous poster. You played the opening pretty well, and got a good position, but I wonder if you gave enough thought to 8.O-O. If you look at Black's pawns, they are all on white squares, so the dark squares around his king could become pretty weak if his Bg7 gets exchanged. So you might have seriously considered playing Qd2 and Bh6 to get rid of Black's bishop. Once you decided to try and weaken the defenses around the Black king, you could also have thought about playing O-O-O followed by h4->h5 to open the h-file and increase your threats.

Even though you didn't adopt the best plan, your moves were reasonable and you were at least equal after 17 moves. But why 18.g3? that move weakens all the light squares around the king. The simple Qd2 or Qf3 was better. 

24...Nc5 was certainly bad. If he just plays 24...Qd8 25.Bxf8 Qb6+ 26.Kg2 Black has two pieces for a rook and excellent attacking chances. If you look at how powerful his bishop will be on the long diagonal, you will realize that the idea that 18.g3 weakened your white squares is not just theory.

It's a pity your oppenent abandoned the game; there was plenty of play left, and it was pretty even.