Where was my mistake?

Hi all,

This was a recent game of mine in a rated tournament.Can you tell me where my mistakes were?

I am Vikram, just in case you don't get confused.

Where is the end of the game? Yes the a and c pawns were weak and he could win your f pawn but you were up a pawn and had an easy to get passed pawn on the h file to provide counterplay. The game was not over.

helo

7 Bb4+ ... I would have just put it on top of the rook to hold down the attacking diagonal against the soon-to-be castled king.  Check trade etc just helps white develop that knight and bishop -- you moved the same piece around and he takes 2 off the back row!

16) setting up a cheapshot, might be worth your time to drive his queen off or position your own queen on that side.  Yours is surrounded and useless for now.

22 Rd3 is very good

32 Qf3 seems better to me, potentially hook up R&Q to attack his king, a pawn, whatever.

37 -- take with the pawn, get a passed pawn, perhaps? 

43.. white can force a draw here, I think, or at least force black to give up the pawn which frees white's dangerous pawn.... better to draw by repetition than allow that. 

In general, no one big mistake or majorly flawed move.  You were winning (by a pawn and slightly better position), apart from white being able to force the draw, which is the correct thing for white to do here, probably.

notmtwain, I resigned because he had a force manuevre to get my f7 pawn:

43Rb8 Kh7 44 Rf8

Why on earth did he do Kh1? That's a weird move.

In terms of conceptual errors, seems like you just trade off instead of trying to build pressure, and make passive moves that waste a tempo. Specifically, the

7... Bb4 + is actually okay, as long as you followed it up with 8...Nc6. As you can see, his dark squared bishop is much better positionally than his white squared bishop, which is being blocked by the pawns, and initiating a trade where you don't lose tempo will keep the game fairly square.

12...b6 is too passive. Better would maybe be 12...e5 [13. fxe5, Ng4 (Threatening Ne3, forking the queen and rook) 14. Qe1, Nxe5] Landing you a central knight, and a better position. Another alternative is instead of Nxe5, you could play

14...a5, (obviously threatening a6) 15. a4 (15. exd6?? is actually a blunder, as it leads to 15...Qxd6!! (Simultaneously threatening mate with Qxh2, and "forking" (not technically a fork, but a double threat) the bishop on d3) 15...Ngxe5! And a similar position to before, with the advantage of having more space.

I can continue this and send you a full analysis if you like? It'll take some time though

I think you might have resigned early also, that game was still very playable. 

There is no one "mistake" that cost you this game, simply a combination of small positional and tactical errors., that by themselves mean little, but add up to a superior position for white in the endgame.

I'm not sure, but by targetting the a and b pawns ASAP, black may actually have winning chances. Resigning was atrocious here, I'd take your position over white's. Until around 1500 or so, play on until the end. One pawn won't break the game at your level.

I would play, 11... e5 to open my l.s. Bishop and to lock the pawn structure that gives white a bad bishop. You were a bit passive, while white was attacking on the kingside, all your pieces were on the queenside and didn't manage to create any counter attack. 33...a5 was a mistake serving no purpose and giving you a backward b6 pawn.

At the end,

...it's not very clear, you shouldn't have resigned so early.

This is a good analysis. Can you explain his 11. Kh1 to me? It seems to make very little sense. 

@MukadeCamelCase, moves like 11.Kh1 is obviously made so that he can play f4, however in my opinion that prophylaxis wasn't necessary at the moment, since there aren't any immediate threats on that diagonal. A better move might be 11.f4 immediately.

I agree with the rest of the chess players here. While you did not blunder, you made a few moves that created weaknesses in your position and therefore led to a more difficult endgame. Your opponent was rated higher and new how to exploit those weaknesses.

@franknstein I agree, 11.Kh1 wastes a tempo. How did you feel about my 12...e5 suggestion? Am I missing anything in the variation?

It certainly looks good to me. White still seems to have the attack with 13.f5 and 14.g4 etc. but it's probably defendable with correct play.

no mistakes.

26...R8d4 was better as it maintains the pressure over the d-file. let me show u a sample variation 27.Re4 Qc6 =+

...but the a6 pawn falls by 26...Qa8+.

c5.

You ran out of moves on MCO and couldn't play the Rook and Pawn endgame?

Start by taking the MCO out of your lap, and study middlegame and endgame themes instead.

1200 players don't typically play as you did.  Unless this was at CC speeds.  Whatever.

P.S. -- your Game in 5/0 records look pretty much the same.  Time to swear off the juice, perhaps?