This is a very interesting game of the latvian gambit that I played here. There were a lot of tension constantly and I would like some suggestions on moves that could have changed the course of the game for both black and white. The annotation is what i had in mind for the moves

What a game! Hope I don't play you Cleive.

for the first time i play chess it's so hard for me to make my first move but with this puzzle i learn alot.....

I have been looking for some interesting counter gambits lately. I think I'm going to try this out in speed chess.

To answer you question:

I think that Black should never have allowed the bishop trade at the 7th move. The object of this gambit, it seems, is to shock White. Perhaps 6...Bxf7+ 7. KxB  Pxe4+ (with d5 to come) would have changed the outcome.

Head_Hunter wrote:

I have been looking for some interesting counter gambits lately. I think I'm going to try this out in speed chess.

To answer you question:

I think that Black should never have allowed the bishop trade at the 7th move. The object of this gambit, it seems, is to shock White. Perhaps 6...Bxf7+ 7. KxB  Pxe4+ (with d5 to come) would have changed the outcome.

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I meant to say 6...Bxf2+ blah blah blah

Now that I've got a few Latvian games under my belt, I have to say that I think the opening is extremely unfavorable to black and often leads to interesting, but brutally short games.  I can envision it being useful in blitz/quick chess but if white has time to think or is at all familiar with the opening, black's going to be in trouble early...and often.

Here are some of my comments on the game above:

7...Na6 is a moderate mistake.  Much better is Bxe3.  I also like 8.d4 better than Bxc5 but it's not a big deal.

14...Nc8 I don't see the logic in this move.  A much more active move would have been Nd5.

15.hxg6 has a certain flair to it and definitely pressures black but Qd2 is better imho.

I strongly disagree that 22...Nxe2 is a serious mistake.  In fact, I'd go so far as to say that I think it's black's strongest move.  Taking the bishop removes the only defender of the pawn on g4 and hinders white's long distance mobility.

23...Nb6 is a mistake.  Not for the first time black opts for a less active Knight move.  In addition to being more active, Nd6 stakes a claim on the center and leaves the Knight in a much better position to influence the game.

24.c3 solves the immediate problem for white but Rd4 is a superior move as it blocks the mate threat and threatens the Knight with a pretty Rook move.

Finally, black missed two golden opportunities to equalize by moving 24...g5 or 25...g5.

My two cents.

Good job white.  Well played game.

nice game dont have suggestions already thanks for posting your game