Help, Please!

I'm making some improvement, but for me, learning chess is hard. I work a lot of puzzles. I study basic principles. I can follow along with games from "Logical Chess" by Chernev, and I've gone through several online beginner's courses, along with watching many, many instructional videos. 

While everything I read and study makes sense, it doesn't help me when I get into a game.  I'm using analysis and game review to try to understand my own errors, but sometimes I just don't understand why a move is a mistake. 

This morning I played a game against Maria -- a 1200 bot. I actually played fairly well during the first part of the game, but then I did make a couple serious blunders (like losing my Queen to Maria's bishop) and finally just gave up and let my King be mated. 

I'm not sure if I'm adding the game correctly here or not. I tried using the FEN but got error messages, so I tried using the PGN.

Following the game, I went through the review and made note of the questions I have.  I have 7 specific questions. I won't post them all here, but I would be very appreciative if someone could message me to discuss the questions I have.

One question concerns White's move 7, Nf3. My game review tells me this creates a threat that can't be ignored. But I can't see it! What threat is White making?

The other questions involve the moves I made. With the exception of my obvious blunders, I don't understand why they were "bad" moves, or why a different move would have been better.

I know this is asking a lot. I really do want to learn this game.  If anyone is willing to look at this game and answer a few questions for me, I think it would help me a great deal. 

Thanks so much! I enjoy this forum because there are so many helpful players here.  

One question concerns White's move 7, Nf3. My game review tells me this creates a threat that can't be ignored. But I can't see it! What threat is White making?

When you played Nf3, you are threatening to take the pawn on e5.

When you go over the game,  I think you should first look at the big blunders that change the course of the game.  In the position below,  you played Nb4 to stop an attack on your queen.  You couldn't just take the bishop because it was protected by a knight. 

The computer says that was a blunder because you could have played Bxc3+ which would have led to white taking your bishop with his knight,  which would remove the guard from white's bishop.

You should just post your other questions.

After reviewing the game again, I did see the threat to the e5 pawn. So... is a single threat to a single pawn so important that I should immediately respond to it? I suppose the short answer is "Yes, of course!" especially during the opening stage of the game.

@justbefair... I suppose I could post my questions one at a time here. My next question was on my 9th move. (I am playing Black.) I developed my knight to c6. I thought getting my knight out into the action would be a good choice. The game review, however, said pushing my d-pawn would have been a better move. Why?

Thank you so much for this helpful explanation! I will remember this. I've been going over the differences between "open" and "closed" games, so this really adds to my knowledge base. 

Now... next question! 

One of my problems is that when it's time to move my Queen off the back rank -- thereby connecting my rooks -- I never know what to do with her. In this game, I moved her to d6. According to the game review, this move caused me to lose my winning advantage.  It again suggested I push the pawn (now I know why), but was there something really fundamentally wrong with my Queen move? 

Are there any tips anyone can give me for knowing where to put the Queen when it's time to move her off the back rank?

Thanks, everyone, for all the help!

Bad opening, too many pawn moves, don't fianchetto your bishops, learn to play a nice solid Italian instead.

I'm playing Black. 

Those moves probably don't matter at all. You are making a lot of obvious blunders, and you know that you are making a lot of obvious blunders, and those blunders matter a lot. You have to stop making those if you want to get better.

Don't just make random moves without thinking. Try to notice if a particular move you plan to make would lose a piece, and then don't make that move. One does not have to be a rocket scientist to notice that your 20. - Qb5 move hangs the queen. You don't need any special skills to notice that, all you have to do is pay attention to the game.

Sounds like you've gotten some helpful feedback by others in this forum thread

I made an hour long YouTube video (analyzing a single chess game as an example) on some main things to consider when analyzing a game for learning. It might be time well spent for you as it might offer some analysis direction that could save you much more than an hour in the future.

Also, chess games posted use pgn. The fen that you guessed originally is used to post a single chess position (not a game or sequence of moves; that uses pgn). I also made a shorter video about fen and how to write the fen string by hand. This is a simple to learn skill, but many chess players never learn to read and write fen. It is a super helpful way of recording chess positions in OTB analysis you want to check with a computer later, or even a good way of recording a chess puzzle you see in person so you can find the solution with an engine later on