Sicilian Dragon - Class C player

Hey everyone! Recently I saw a post saying that more amateurs should post their games, so I decided to give it a try. 

What I want right now is to improve. That means be brutally honest, tell me if I'm doing something extremely stupid, and tell me everything I need to work on. I appreciate all constructive feedback.

Anyway, I'm a rusty Class C player who hasn't played in a tournament in almost a year and who just recently started using chess.com again. I annotated this game so people know what I was thinking when I made the moves. I did annotations once by myself and once with Rybka.

Here is the game:

Ng4 and h6 is black's best reaction when white does not play f3. This throws white bishop at h4 where it is not as useful in attack as on e3. White's main idea in this line is to trade the bishops on h6 and open h file with h4-h5. When the bishop is on h4 it prevents both ideas.

I would probably choose Be6 instead of a6 with the idea of pressure on c file and also making Ne5-c4 possible after f3.

Dragon players often play Be6 when white knight retreats from d4 and frequently choose a5-a4 to undermine Nb3. Thus your plan with a6 seems a bit slow for me - however it is not bad (in fact so called Dragondorf links dragon ideas with Najdorf, i.e. a6-b5)

owltuna:

Wow, I didn't expect anyone to give me so much advice! Thanks. I'll reply to everything you said.

First, I understand your point about not using an engine until I'm out of book, but I don't have a reliable opening database. Could you tell me where I could get one?

Second, 0-0 made me nervous because I no longer had a rook to defend h6. A kingside with a pawn on h6 is weaker than a kingside with a pawn on h7. I thought that if he decided to storm, it might be a problem.

Thirdly, could you explain why d5 is so important? I feel like understanding this will help me a lot in the Sicilian.

Fourthly, I think we have a different definition of endgame. I'm using a definition that Var Akobian gave me, one that simply states that the endgame starts after the queens are off the board. I didn't mean to imply that there isn't important action going on with the other pieces. I was saying that without queens, pawnstorms don't really work anymore, and I need to play more quietly, focusing on control of squares and activating my pieces.

I understand your points about the pawns and opening/closing the position. I think I need to pay less attention to pure pawn structure and more attention to optimizing my minor pieces. 

This is a great learning experience. Thanks for all your input. 
 

dzikus, thanks for the info about Dragon theory. 

d5 square is important because it eliminates the center squares for white. I usually prefer accelerated dragon (d6 comes later) in which u can force white in 0-0. And yes Be6 is the best place for the bishop. Try not to move the e7 pawn. Black has a great pawn structure. Don' t ruin it. Also u give white good counter play.