Game I played for my school a while ago

I wanted to show off a sac I made in this game (move 20). I would also love input for my mistakes I made (especially in the opening). I don't need to be told how bad the promotion to a knight was; I was trying to be clever and I thought it worked at the time (it didn't).

(I played White)

As I have said, I know I didn't play perfectly even before I almost let my opponent away with a draw with the underpromotion. Any advice is welcome. :)

Stylish_Player dont call it idiotic. Trying something other than the normal is more like innovative.

I already acknowledge the mistake of the underpromotion. I had been sat at this board for two hours already (longer I think) and had been constantly sleep-deprived for about a month beforehand. I thought it worked, and didn't see how quickly I could force a queen trade if I had just queened the pawn. Obviously, I messed up.

I already knew it was a mistake. If you are just going to insult me rather than offer me any useful advice, then (and I mean this in the kindest way possible) leave my forum alone and go bully someone else.

5 Nb5 is better, the knight in b3 has no good squares.

7Bd3 not Qd3 for me: the position is open, so i dont like moving queen too early.

8 a3 ?! loses time: 8 Be2 simply. If your opponent change in c3 you will be a move ahead than the game.

14 Qd2 trying to change the queens because i feel black is better here. he has a nice c file to attack your queeenside.

The sac on move 20 seems dubious to me: after 21...Qxg2 22Rxd4 Qxh1+ 23 Ka2 g6 24 Bxb7 you have just R+B+p for the queen...anyway its not totally clear.

My opponent did tell me that I should have played Nb5. I will look more deeply into this opening.

I did only really play Qd3 so that I wouldn't have to double my pawns if he played Bxc3. So your advice is that it wasn't that big of a deal?

I do have a habit of playing a3 and h3 (or a6 and h6) pawn pushes too often. I wanted to either free up my knight or end up with the bishop pair. I probably should have played Be2 though, it doesn't commit me to anything and then the piece is developed.

The c-file weakness is why I was so quick to move my king. But I take your point on trading the queens. I was fairly sure at the time that he was winning positionally, but I wanted to keep my queen on the board (I don't know why).

I knew the sac wasn't an instant win, but I was fairly sure that I needed to do it to avoid a weakness in the pawn structure around my king. Had I just moved my queen away, he could have chased it with his rooks, forcing me to eventually capture cxd3:

When I played the sac on move 20, I gained a tempo with the mate threat, which allowed me precious defence of both my King against a single attacker, and my terribly weak pawn on g2. Keeping in mind I had no analysis with me, I was sure that the sac was my only chance of a win.

(Admiteddly, it was my h4 mistake that made g2 so weak)

Thanks for the advice, it will be useful.

7 Qd3 doesnt avoid doubled pawns , e.g. after 7...Bxc3 you cannot take with queen becouse e4 is hanging. anyway doubled pawns are compensated by bishop pair, its not dramatic for white.

In my opionion the pawn storm with g4 and /or h4 is too slow, black has no weakness on the kingside, so i prefer 15 Qg3, then develop f1 bishop  

1Qxa7 Bxd3 2 Rxd3 Rxd3 3 cxd3 Qxg2 after 4Rc1 i think white has winning chances too with less risk than the game. You end up winning the b7 pawn(defending the b2 point if he attack on the second rank) then the a pawn run...

Also in the variation 1Qe3 Re8 2Qd2 Rcd8 3Rde1 (if 3...Rxe1 4Qxe1! forces good endgame) I prefer white

CPerni wrote:

7 Qd3 doesnt avoid doubled pawns , e.g. after 7...Bxc3 you cannot take with queen becouse e4 is hanging. anyway doubled pawns are compensated by bishop pair, its not dramatic for white.

In my opionion the pawn storm with g4 and /or h4 is too slow, black has no weakness on the kingside, so i prefer 15 Qg3, then develop f1 bishop  

1Qxa7 Bxd3 2 Rxd3 Rxd3 3 cxd3 Qxg2 after 4Rc1 i think white has winning chances too with less risk than the game. You end up winning the b7 pawn(defending the b2 point if he attack on the second rank) then the a pawn run...

Also in the variation 1Qe3 Re8 2Qd2 Rcd8 3Rde1 (if 3...Rxe1 4Qxe1! forces good endgame) I prefer white

Fair enough, so Qd3 is absolutely completely unjustified.

I hear you about the slowness of the pawn storm. I had thought at the time that the advances to the fourth rank with temp would give me enough speed to get something out of it. Having spent a lot of time studying the Yugoslav attack recently before this game, I was a little predispositioned to try pawn storms in the vast majority of my games. This also may have contributed to my reluctance to trade queens in the game. But I do agree that 15. Qg3 was probably better.

Those two lines do look appealing. I wasn't particularly good at Q+P or R+P endings at the time (one might argue that I'm still bad at them) and I was versing a higher rated opponent so I went for what I thought was more solid (the queen sac). Admittedly, I don't think I even considered Qxa7 in the game. I'm not sure if I noticed there was a pawn hanging there.

Thanks again, this gives me lots of material to study.