We agreed to play a 2 game match and annotate our games as we played them to see what went wrong in our thought process throughout the game.  Here are the games with my notes!  I welcome comments and advice.

I was really proud of this game because I set out a plan and was actually able to follow it.  I feel like he was just too slow on the queenside and let me get too much space in the center and kingside.  I invite zirtoc to give us his notes on the game as well!

It took me a long time to get all the notes into the diagram thingy so I will post the next game a bit later.  

1-5.  All standard Pirc stuff.

6..Na6 is a move that Nigel Davies uses frequently in the Pirc.  The idea is to push c5 and transpose into a favorable sicilian-type pawn structure.  dxc5 Nxc5.  If white pushes d5, then the knight moves to c7 and can move up the board along a different path.

9..Qb6  I agree with my opponent that preparing a queenside pawnstorm was probably the better choice.  I knew white was castling queenside, so the idea was to start getting my pieces over there to attack.  But Qb6 does not do that very effectively.

10..Bd7 Looking back, I don't really see what I was doing here.  I was worried about Na4, but looking at the board now, I don't really see why.

12.  Just to follow up on white's comment, it's not so easy for him to attack.  Unfortunately, black's plan isn't forcing, so white has time to set things up.

15..Nxg4  I really considered not taking the g pawn, but I felt like I needed to poke a hole in that pawn storm.

16..h6!?  The point of this move was that I was hoping white would hastily take the g pawn, and then I could play f6.  White's own pawn would then block the g file, making my defense a little easier.  I was terrified of tricks with white playing f5 here at some point, clearing the white pawn on the h file and putting his queen on h6.

17..Nf6 It's the only safe square for the knight, but it defeats the whole purpose of my last move.  And white is able to exploit it.

21.  I did see the mate with Rxh6, but missed the mate with Kxh6.  I felt like an idiot when white pushed the pawn, lol.  Kf8 is also mate, I believe.  Black made some pretty questionable moves in the middle game, and white capitalized on them.  Bravo to my opponent.

I think 9..Qb6 was definitely the loser.  And I think maybe 12..h5 to lessen the impact of white's g4 would have helped a great deal.  But black's chances of attacking the queenside are unrealistic here.  I would like to hear what people would have done differently.

Game #2

This was a much sloppier game.  I didn't feel good about my position in the opening at all.  We both blundered a bit, and I just got lucky that he blundered last.

For game #1, I would have been more nervous had you played 9...b5 instead of 9...Qb6.  I never play the pirc or the sicilian so I don't really know.  But from whites perspective I get nervous when they push b5 early.

1-5.  I play the Inverted Hanham with white, but I play it sort of backwards.  It is an e4 opening, related somewhat to the King's Indian Attack.  However, if e4 is played immediately, it can lead to the Scandinavian.  Played this way, the moves in the Hanham are playable regardless of what black plays.

6. c3  The point here is that if black doesn't move the bishop, then I can play 7. b4.  After the bishop moves, I play 8. b5.  Now the knight must move, and I can gobble up black's pawn on e5 with my knight.

9. h3 As with white's plan in our other game, I may send a pawn storm down the kingside.  It's a little trickier for me though, because I like to castle kingside.  The other point was to control g4.

10. b5 At first I thought black had shut me down completely on the queenside with this move.  But I have so much firepower on c4 that I think I can open things up and possibly free up my pieces on the queenside.  As an aside, I was also looking at Nh2 here and starting a kingside push.

12. Nxc4  Some complicated exchanges coming up here.  dxc4 seems simpler and predictable with an even exchange.  Nxc4 is a little less predictable, and allows some room for miscalculation.

13. b5 forces black to make some tough calculations.  Of course, I have to worry about my own king safety while the bullets fly.

14. Bxf8  I was not expecting to take the rook.  I thought black would play Ncb4.

16..Bd4  Heh, I totally missed the obvious fork here.  But the burden is on black to equalize...

18. Qe2  I calculated a lot of variations here.  Qe2 seems to allow me to stay up the exchange, due to black's weak back rank.  For example, 18.Qe2 Bxa1 19.Nc4 bxc4 20.Bxd5 and black can't take the bishop because of Qe8 mate, and he cannot move the rook because of 20. Qe8+ Qf8 21. Bxf7+! Kh8 22. Qxf8 mate.  Unfortunately, black has some better play than what I calculated.

20. Bxd5?  Ack!  I did not see ..Qb4+ until after I moved!  No matter what I play, black can play Bb7 and save everything, putting me down a full rook.  Takebacks, anyone?  But my opponent missed it.

21. Kf1??  The blunder that lost the game, IMO.  I believe Kd1 would have allowed me to win the rook back.  With Kf1, I have to get out of the impending bishop skewer on d3.

After that, all I had left was the possibility of back rank mate.  Certainly possible, considering some of the moves we both played in this game.  But after travis took that possibility away, I could do nothing but resign.  Good game.

In the other game, 9..b5 cannot be played because you have both the knight and bishop guarding that square.

Oh, right... i was thinking there was a pawn on a6 lol.

I would appreciate it if you would check what you would have played if I had played 21. Kd1.  My bishop cannot be taken and your rook cannot move.  I'm curious to see if you have a way to stop me from winning the rook and going back up the exchange.

I was thinking I would give up the rook and play Bd7, followed by Ba4+ and cxd3.  If I dont have a mate there, I dont see how the pawn can be stopped.

Thoughts of an inferior player:

Analysis of game 2.