I think you played very well. You probably gave your opponent too much respect - you seemed a bit too keen to exchange pieces instead of finding good moves. Be more confident in your own ability!
You might have done better if you had tried to be more active with your pieces and had broken up his advanced pawns before they caused you such trouble.
This is a good game. I thought you were playing the black pieces until about move 20. Seems to me you just got beat by him making slightly better moves and the advantages accumulated. By move 25 or so he has wadded you up into a ball while he owns a huge piece of the board. His two superb bishops have no problems with your rook while your bishop is entombed and your knight on the rim on row 1.
22. Rd2! may well be fatal. The problem being your c2 knight is trapped and his brother on e1 will be too after the bishop takes.
I'd have considered 23. e4?! to blunt the bishop's attack. If he takes it e.p. you lose the troublesome e pawn, save your knight (with tempo!) and break up his pawns.
I'd have killed his white-shared bishop on move 24. You might lose your epawn but I think things are critical. That would deny him the bishop pair and either get rid of your bad knight or double his pawns on the c file (more likely.) The moves played allowed him to remove a key defender from your king (the knight) while the knight he lost was a bystander. Practically speaking, you dropped a piece in the short-term in that exchange. You might drop the e pawn, but your cramped rook was going to die to doubled bishops.
Taking the bishop on 29 is fatal. Now the rook can eat your queenside pawns. That being said, there weren't any good moves left for you by then.
That's a nice game and you should be proud of it.
Here are some of my thoughts, but first a disclaimer or two: 1) never played the English opening, 2) gave the game a good once through but I probably missed something, 3) hindsight is 20/20.
At first I thought you shouldn't have fianchettoed next to such a well controlled diagonal, but after looking a bit harder, I think it was fine. About the only move in the opening I would take issue with is 4. Bg5. I think 4.e4 is better. You seemed to get very fixated on the kingside defense and sort of (though not completely) neglected the center, to your later detriment. He made some mistakes too, especially 10...Bh3 which I don't like at all. I think you evaluated that position well and the decision to exchange queens, in my opinion, was a good one. I do wish you had maintained that tempo and initiative, though, and followed up on it a little better, but more on that in the next paragraph.
14. Nb5 is pretty weak. You had an established center Knight which you then marginalized by moving to the flank and then retreating under attack. Why not 14.Nd5 (which leads to his Knight being attack by your pawn (c/d) and forcing him to lose it or marginalize it or endanger it by going to a5, b8 or b4) or the sequence: 14. Nb5 a6 15. Na7+ Nxa7 16. Bxa7? Then if 16...e4 17. Ne5 to fork and win a pawn (potentially) and fork the rooks in the process. Even if he saw it coming you may have a chance to exchange rook and knight for a well placed bishop and rook and open a nice file. I think with a move like that (Nb5) it is better to follow through and make the exchange as white than lose the tempo of retreating, but that is my opinion not some kind of super chess truth. :-) 18. Rd5 wasn't all that great. I like 18.Nd5 better but if the game was being played assuming the above I wouldn't have that move. 25. Kf1 seems rather pointless, especially since it allows the pawn that starts a pretty devestating series of attacks.
Finally, but you don't need me to tell you this, Rc2 was pretty bad. Alternatives? I can't really think of good moves from that position. I have spent about ten minutes trying to come up with something better but I think by this time you were pretty bested tactically. As one of the others pointed out, he did have the run of the board and you were pretty "waded up" into a little ball.
All in all, I agree with the others. You made a good showing and your annotations show you recognize the good moves from the less than good. Thanks for posting this game and I hope my comments are helpful!
thanks for your help! I think I have been stuck on this level for a while and I really want to improve. So that's why I posted this game.
Sonofpearl, I think you're right about me being too careful. I will try playing more freely and think twice about trading.
stormcrown, 23. e4 seems good, I guess it's one of those moves I just didn't see during the game. 24. taking the bishop you're probably right about that. I considered it but my thoughts were I needed all defenses where they were needed. 29 I think it was my only way out. Things have turned bad before.
Tderifield, 4. e4 is not one of my favorites because it weakens d4. I don't know if it would have been better though. 14. Nb5 you're right about that. I lost precious tempo with that move. I considered the lines you gave as well, but after Bxa7 b6 traps my bishop. 18. Nd5 is better indeed I think Rd5 was one of my mistakes as well. 25. Kf1. I didn't know many things to do, so I did what seemed most helpful. I was lost by then. And Rc2, I saw it coming in advance but it couldn't be helped after it was too late.
"3) hindsight is 20/20."
word.
yes 13.Nd5 looks like a good move, I was caught up controlling the center.
And Omnipaul, the pawnstormthing you mention is absolutely true. I've encountered this before sometimes but mostly 0-0 is preferred over 0-0-0. Looking at the game it was his plan for a longer while.
Thanks a lot for all your comments. I guess I still have a lot to learn..
Maybe its just me misinterpreting Nimzowitch, but 9.Bxf6, far from freeing black's bishop, would in fact have made it 'bad', after 10 e4. Your bishop's retreat to e4 blocked your defending pawns from attacking the marauding black pawns. 11. Nd5 gains tempo (if he wants to keep his bishop), followed by a3 and b4 and Qa4 should make his monarch uncomfortable castled on the queenside.
Hope this is useful. If it is/or is not - could someone tell me? please!
I don't really know what I should have done differently, comments are much appreciated.