Hi everyone, I am quite new to the game and am looking for any tips you have.  Every loss i have i try to look over the game and decide where my mistakes were.  I beleive my mistake was made when I moved my queen to his side.  Where could I have moved without setting myself up and also not wasting a move?  Thanks.

Could you post the whole game? White's position looks too open after only 16 moves. Looking at a whole game is often even more helpful than looking at just part of it :-D

Hi guys, you could've played Qe2 or Qe4, keeping your queen on the e file in order to maintain the pin on the knight, then the next move take it ;-)

I'm sorry, I've added the entire game.  Mehdipiero I agree, funny how you dont notice things until someone mentions them.  What does everyone else think?

Your queen was pinning his N, and his N is attacked by pawns... so if you can maintain the pin and get a move you could and capture the N with a pawn -- which would be very good for your cause. So why not Qe4 or Qe2?... Qe4 would maintain the pin and attack the a4 pawn. Qe2 would maintain the pin and attack the h5 pawn. Qe3 would also maintain the pin, but why put the Q there where it doesn't seem to accomplish anything else there, where it would be vulnerable to attack from Black's dark square bishop, and where (thinking ahead) it might clog the way for you as bring your own dark square bishop to a more aggressive square.

And your move, Qb8, wasn't particularly attacking, nor did it solidify you defensively... it was as if you were just withdrawing your Queen from the game.

If I was you I would spend a little time studying opening principles.

A few rules of the top of my head:
1. Don't move any piece twice before you have moved all pieces once (unless there is a good reason to do so)
Look at move 20, your 2 rooks your black bishop and your knight have not been moved at all, had you taken the time to get them out before attacking you would have had a lot more pieces that could add their power to the fray

2. Don't bring the queen out early (unless there is a good reason to do so)
Your queen is the most powerful piece but that is also the danger of the queen, because you have to protect it. Notice how he wins the initiative by threatening your queen.
The queen is strong because of its mobility, while there are a lot of chessmen on the board, the mobility is hindered by them, better keep it safe at home untill it can really do some damage (The same idea applies for rooks)

3. Castle early
See how exposed your king is there in the middle at move 20? Castling is a great way to keep your king out of harms way, as soon as you feel you can take a little breather get him safe (Obviously you cannot castle before you have gotten your pieces out of the way - another good reason for following rule 1)

There are more, but these stick out from the game above

Yeah, play 17 Qe4, then on the next move take the knight--with your f pawn (18 de allows 18... Re5).

Also, you could've won a piece with 6 gf.

Actually after seeing all the game...totally agree with fluffy_rabbit. nice constructive tips.