This game was CC, 3 days per move, I played black.

I have various questions that appear in the comments.  Any help you can offer would be appreciated. 

Thanks!

Question 1: I think despite how things look going queenside is fine, because then you can use your kingside pawns aggresssively. However I didn't like 11...f5, because it takes the pressure off e5 and it just seems that white has more freedom for his queenside attack compared to yours. I would have preferred something like ...g5 followed by ...g4 to undermine the e pawn, and if you can win the center like that then you definitley shouldn't be worried about an attack on your king.

Question 2: It's often good to have this kind of mentality but I don't see why you need to allow white to win a queenside pawn, which significantly weakens your king. I think white should have took the a pawn immediately instead of Bxg7, as ...b6 fails to Ba6+. Then the position would be very interesting: you have lots of mobile center pawns but white is threatening to counter them simultaneously opening the c file (where your king is) with c4. I get the feeling though that you can consolidate your position with something like ...Bc6 and then ...e5 anyway, and if white plays c4 and takes he's just activating your pieces, and if he goes c5 he lets your center pawns march, which should be superior to his queenside ones.

Edit: never mind, if ...Bc6 at any point I somehow missed b5, so maybe the position is dangerous for black after all!

Around move 25 white probably had a winning attack as his pieces are right in the fray compared to yours, I think he just screwed it up.

Lets see. On move 27 dxe6 might be very strong, but I won't try to analyze it because it'll probably be terribly flawed. I recomend you check the game from 25 on with a computer.

Alright, so I answered the questions concerning the general strategy, someone else can look for the answers to questions 3+4 lol, but again a computer would probably answer them very well.

certainly, your king is less safe on the queenside. its not hard for white to open lines on the queenside, while its rather strained for you to force open lines on the kingside (you might hope for exf, but its always possible that white jsut gives you that pawn...and advanced his own attack). it might makes the game mroe interesting, but overall I think it creates more danger for you than him. also, you have more pieces sorta clustered around on the queensdie that may be vulnerable to getting knocked around when he advances there.

2 in this case, it would seem really not justified. Unless you see that you force mate (crazy) your king is SEVERELY weaked by this, since now all the dark squares over there are his, and your king cannot move away from the center anymore...the difference between the number of holes around 2 pawns and 1 pawn is huge. You should have played Kb8 i think.

3. his kf2 was silly...kh1 is better. no i dont think yu have a forced mate. in fact i would think maybe he does, if he had played kh1..basically you did the right thing rushing to that perpetual becuase you dont have time to do anything slower, his chances are better than yours if theres any free moves.

4. yes, draw is the most you can hope for there. I think you easily woudl remain 2 pawns down because your f5 also is probably doomed

all my comments are without computer assistence by the way, this is just from intuition. one move i really didnt liek from him was the quick g3. I dont knwo why he was forced to do that yet. Probably you coudl force it, but he should wait until you force it. by rushing with that move he basically gives you more options with your attack for free.

"certainly, your king is less safe on the queenside. its not hard for white to open lines on the queenside, while its rather strained for you to force open lines on the kingside (you might hope for exf, but its always possible that white jsut gives you that pawn...and advanced his own attack). it might makes the game mroe interesting, but overall I think it creates more danger for you than him. also, you have more pieces sorta clustered around on the queensdie that may be vulnerable to getting knocked around when he advances there."

Strange, since castling queenside around here is one of the most popular ideas (according to opening theory!) against a3 ideas by white. In order to really open lines on the queenside white has to give up the center with dxc5, and black in the game could have undermined it better and gained space quicker if he had played ...g5 and ...g4, when black has dynamic play against the center and more space on the kingside to compensate for his own problems. It's a dynamic situation.

it may be popular, and it may be fine, just seems much more dangerous for black than white.

In fact last time I checked white doesn't try dxc5 usually in that particular position, though he sometimes does in similar ones. I mean after 10 b4 Be7, 11 Bf4 seems to be met by ...g5, and Re1 by maybe just ...Qc7. It looks hard for white to hold his center. I guess he could try giving it up with exf6 and maybe thinking about c4 (which could probably be met by ...d4 if needed), but I still think black should be happy with the position in the center he gets.

dc looks very logical to me. the other guy puts his king in a dangerous place, so lets kill him. why not? direct, logical and fine. I actually put the exact position in chessbase, and it hasnt been seen very often...dc and bc2 both played 3 times....(bc2?) the highest rated guy (2400) did dc (and lost)...still think its logical. By computer recommends b4, which is almost the same just maybe better move order.

Well the reason why it's risky for white is that he gives up his center, so that attack better succeed (and the attack white has looks far from clear since there are so few pieces ready to attack, even if his pawns are).

Alright, I'll just call it double edged. Now I remember what black's supposed to play. It's ...c4 first (before ...0-0-0) and if white ever plays b4 or b3 black just takes en passant and he's the one with weaknesses to work with on the queenside. Black then focuses on a combination of kingside play and attack against e5, in addition to playing for control of the c file with ...Kb8 and ...Rc8.

i wouldnt say white is doomed if he fails to mate black....he will certainly force some sort of concession...the black center pawns are annoying but not winning...

I wonder how people can call the french boring with games like this.

And I forgot to say, this was a cool game! Especially the multiple attacks at the end even though it wasn't necessarily totally accurate.

32. Rfc1

was probably his biggest mistake. He didn't need to protect it fully. And he might have done well to initiate an attack here. But perpetual check was probably inevitable.

Thanks to both of you for all the ideas, its really helpful!

Elubas was right, computer analysis gives a pretty grim story (for black) from move 25:

After 30.Kf2, there's no mate, but I did not play accurately in any case (30...Rg2+ is better).

It had gotten better by the end of the game (32.Be2 is about +0.99), and Qe2 simply repeats moves.

To begin, your 6...f6 is not one of the preferred moves in this position: 6...c4, 6...Bd7, 6,,,Nh6, and 6...a5 are all played much more often. 

11...f5 does seem to give White too much of a free hand on the Q-side. Did you consider 11...g5, which seems more in the spirit of the fistfight you've gotten into. e.g. 11...g5 12.exf6, gxf4 13.fxe7 Ncxe7 and the fight is on!

12.a4 intending to follow with 13.Na3 looks more dangerous than what he chose. I also like 16.Bxa7! for White. 17.Bxg7 was second best

The answer to question 2 is that it really does depend on the position, but I would be wary about giving up a pawn that is also part of my King's shield. Seems like a double whammy, doesn't it? Interestingly, after your 16...Qd6, 17.Nf3 seems to be a little stronger than 17.Bxa7 (in my opinion)

Wasn't 21.c4 stronger than 21.Bc5? He needs open lines, and you can't really prevent him from getting them. I think you should have played 21...Qc7. You get the chance for a cute cheapo after 22.c4? Bxc5 23. cxd5? Rxg3+

After 26.dxe6, Black would be pretty much dead, so I'd say you were in trouble.

6...f6 is just wrong.  It is premature - the frontal attack on the pawn chain is only good when Black is ready to meet all White's options and nearly ready to resolve the situation if White does not.  And it neglects development to play a non-essential pawn move.  Critical is 6...Nh6.  If you really have the spirit for a pawn chain fight, that's your move.  [Ideally you slowly screw the Knight into the square, then look your opponent in the eye and smile, punch the clock with authority, get up and take his girlfriend by the hand saying, "C'mon, baby, he's going to be a while - let's get to know each other"].

There was no particular rush to castle, you were not under immediate threat.  9 dxc5 is most inconvenient as it allows White to expand on the Queenside with tempo, and there is really no good square for the Bishop just yet.  Probably 8...c4 is more prudent.  In such situations, if you must play ...c4 (not a favorite for Black too early as it releases all the tension on d4), you want to play it before White can move Re1, allowing his Bd3 to redeploy via Bf1, g3, Bh3 to aid in f2-f4-f5 with a Kingside attack.  Do it while he must go to e2 instead, and remains now with weakened squares on the Queenside.

If you were really sacrificing the pawn at a7, 18...e5 might have been the better way, to immediately press forward with the e & f pawns and set up the attack that way.  But there wasn't an urgency to sacrifice it, so I think it's just giving away a pawn - and I'm a guy who sacs pawns as if they belonged to one of my ex-wives.

Estragon, ...f6 is regarded as a fully playable move by opening theory...

...f6 is effective enough and I've seen strong players use an early ...f6 in ...Qb6 lines (I'm not sure if it's it at this exact moment, but I think it is). I mean how can you say ...f6 doesn't give anything for white to worry about? And Bf4 is taken away due to the queen on b6. Because white wasted some time with a3, ...f6 is more justified, even if not best.

I think ...Nh6 may be more popular but opening theory does not consider 6 ...f6 to be "just wrong", more like "unclear". Another intereting early ...f6 french position is 1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 e5 c5 4 c3 Nf6 5 Nf3 Bd7 6 Be2 f6. Most of the time ...Ne7 is played first (involving a maneouver to g6 or f5), but playing ...f6 right away has it's advantages, and I started to prefer playing the ...f6 line to ...Ne7 because black has more chances to dynamically win the center.

all openings have potential to be sharp depending on what approach people have. In fact I have a funny approach: I know that i have a tendency to be much too aggresive and have often suffered from it...so I dont mind playing openings that are considered unambitious, because i can find crazy ways to create problems in seemingly quiet positions, but the quiet nature somewhat reduces the risk that they backfire and lose.

Compare it to some pianist who tends to play a tad too melodramatic. They probably are awful playing Chopin, but Bach would suit them very well.