I'm a recently made OTB B-class tournament player and just haven't found many A/expert/Master friends so far!  Here is a loss I had a few months ago, for which I'm not sure I'd play much better now.

No matter your rating, feel free to leave feedback, or questions about what I was thinking during a particular move, etc.  Thanks for reading!

Thanks for reading!

i noticed that you seemed to insist on playing ruy lopez moves...c3, the knight path, everything. You didnt really seem to care that black was not playing the ruy lopez. This maybe isnt always going to be a disaster, but you completely overlooked the pressure he had on the kingside (which black doesnt normally have in most closed ruy lopez, except marshall gambit i guess...wonder if you are even familiar with the marshall gambit?), and that was a disaster. YOu really should have seen his threats coming much sooner than you did.

I would suggest you take a look at some openings and common themes besides the ruy lopez. This will help you have an idea about how to treat the position when the guy does not happen to pay the ruy lopez.

Hmm, perhaps instead of Na3, I could've played for the N to go to g3, via d2-f1, to help defend over there.  Good point about not sensing the Kside pressure earlier.

c3 d4 is perfectly okay - in fact, it's recommended.  I think d5 was a huge error.  It's your decision when to open the center; if he plays exd, cxd and your center is mobile and will plague him for the rest of the game.  Develop for another move or two, then dxe.  It'll take black two moves at least to develop a bishop, which means you can develop more and still open the position before he castles.

oh im sure c3 is fine. it jsut also happened to be very ruy lopez, and the start of a strange pattern like that. To be honest the move i would be nervous about playing was 8 0-0...

Thanks Tonydal for those interesting lines!  The 2. f6! line is a nice find.

After 20....b6 I remember feeling like I missed an opportunity for serious pressure as his knight seemed to get freedom at that point.

what about Nc3 insted of you c3 move planing on playing Nd5