French Lesson

After a few wins as Black with the French, I played against one as White tonight - and really blew it in the opening! 

Black's knight is clearly headed for f5 after Ne7, but I just didn't see that this move would win d4! How did I miss it? I guess I'm not used to seeing Qb6 and by being too focused on the attack down the b-file, missed that it was still adding pressure to d4 after 6...cxd4 7.cxd4, 

Since the game went south so quickly, I made a pretty lame 'attack' on the kingside to see if I could catch a break, but the weakness of the plan showed itself pretty quickly, and I resigned at move 25. I'm embarrassed to include the game, but whatever. 

Since my upset win last week, I was climbing the standings a little bit and was expecting a tough pairing. I think I hurt myself a little by expecting to lose, it seems like I still really need to just come and focus on making the best moves and forgetting everything else! This was a fun opponent though, and I hope to have the chance to face him again soon. 

Finally, just for fun: a bonus puzzle from a live game over the weekend. What is White's best move?