Need Help with Analysis

Could anyone help to point out some of the mistakes my opponent made, and how I could have better taken advantage? I've only started playing the Sicilian Defense, after watching ChessNetwork's blitz tournaments on youtube. The time controls for this game were 5 minutes to each player.

hi, why did you play 9...Qd6?, why not 9...O-O-O ?

Hi Cliff,

I'll comment on some of your moves and a few of your opponent.

I'm not crazy about 8...Bxf3.  I see no valid reason to spend another move with this bishop, only to spend it capturing his knight.  Bishops are generally better than knights!  Your kingside development is lacking and this needs to be addressed.

I'm not convinced castling queenside is best.  I myself still might have developed the king night and king bishop and castled kingside.

12... h5?  Nf6 wouldn't prevented the skewer you mentioned and developed a piece!

13... a6?  Again, I would have probably developed my kingside pieces here, instead of another pawn move, even if it does kick the knight back.

14... Qc7.  Another queen move.  The kingside pieces are crying out to play.  (Are you getting the picture?)

17.b4 by your opponent was terrible.  (I suppose he wanted to try to open up lines to your king.)

17... Bd6 wasn't ideal.  The problem with a check on h2 is that it's just a harmless check.  Now your opponent has 18.b5 and this WILL open up lines to your king.

18.g3 was White's losing move.  Black's advantage skyrockets after this.  Note thatWhite had a slight EDGE before this move.

21.f5 almost throws away your win.  White overlooked 22.Qg2, which attacks your bishop, and it looks like he can defend for awhile, although Black is still better.

After 22...Rxh3 it's all over.

Good work and thanks for posting. 

Black has to equalize before he should think about attacking!  In this game if your kingside pieces could talk they would be yelling at you right now, for not utilizing them sooner.

(P.S.  I'm only 1809 USCF, so take everything I say with a grain of salt.) 

Okay, thanks for the feedback. Keep in mind this was a blitz game, so I didn't always see all these moves.

I agree with what Ed said. To elaborate a little more, those were your mistakes, and your opponent just made different mistakes; you could get into slight difficulties against better play. Here's a different perspective on the game.

10...0-0-0 is the start of many problems. It gets out of the pin, but your kingside is undeveloped, and critically your king isn't too safe on the queenside. For instance, 11. d4! or 12. d4 starts to open lines and develops white's QB, notably to f4 whereupon your king would start to feel nervous. A few sample lines: 11. d4 Nf6 12. Nb5 Qd7 13. Bf4 and pressure on d5 to follow (dxc5); 11. d4 cxd4 12. cxd4 with the same ideas as above, with the open c-file available; even 11. Bg4+!? Kc8 12. d4 with different ideas, e.g. g3 and Bf4, Nb5 and Qa4 or other stuff.

Ditto for 13. d4, even more so since you've weakened g5, another candidate square for his bishop.

As it is white played that attack on your king wrong. Then he starts trouble on the kingside to help you.

15. Bxh5 and 16. Bg4+ feel wrong; they open lines for black's attack, rather than doing anything concrete but pawn-grabbing. Finishing development with d4 first seems appropriate (see some similarities between your play and his?)

18. g3? is suicide. There was no threat on h2, but he helpfully shifted the key point to g3 where the sac works. After something like 18. bxc5 Bxc5 19. d4 (again!) Bd6 20. Be3 (intending c4 by protecting d4), white has at least something going for him, a plan to follow.