Hi,

I recently played this  game, and was kind of dissapointed, though not surprised. My offensive abilities are very good, but my defensive understanding is probably that of a much lower rated player. 

I'm playing black here and I am a pawn up at one point with a powerful looking position. White makes one queen move at 21. Qa5 which seems to screw up all my plans--suggesting that 20. ... Ng4 was premature. Even so I made the blunder 21. ... Kd7 where I think I would of been fine if I had played 21. ... Rd8.  I think even better would of been 20. ... 0-0-0 though thoughts of a long castle where being dismissed in my mind because my intuition suggested it would give white counterplay (clearly my intuition was wrong!)

Anyhow here is the game, thoughts and comments?

I actually think that you were too defensive. After 21. Qa5 Nh2 the threat of Nf3+ followed by the discovered double check is really hard to handle. If you had just gone for that I'm convinced this is won.

It's not "should of", it's "should have".

Fittingly, the first link google returns when you do a search for "should of" is from the Canadian government.

The kicker, though, is that the example given is the following:

• I should of studied longer for my English test.
  
  Is this correct?



Well..., gramatically, no.  As a general statement in which we all understand the intent?  Probably.

A very appropriate example.