Game of the Week: Weakened Defenses

This week, I decided to pull a game from my archives where I actually ended up losing the game. Although it is often not very fun, it is important to review our losses in order to identify our mistakes and shortcomings, and improve our play as a result. I guess this echoes life in a way...

Anyway, this game is from about 6 months ago, and strange as it may sound to some, I have actually improved a lot since then. But at the time of this game, I was still trying to settle in to a play style. I experimented with some new positional ideas, namely a lot of pawn-pushing, but honestly I didn't really know what I was doing!

By the early middlegame, I had severely compromised my own position, and ultimately I destroyed the pawn structure around my king. My opponent was a worthy adversary, to be sure, but I personally feel that I was my own worst enemy in this game. I thought aggressive play would help me to excel, but I neglected analysis and proper defense, pressing forward with unsound strategies that "looked good" to me. I now know how foolish that really was...

I hope this analysis will be instructive for you. Perhaps it will be a help you in your own personal studies!

I hope you enjoyed this game. Please feel free to leave feedback (positive or negative) below!