I feel like throwing the towel in

Great advice by @mpaetz and @duckfest - nothing much more to say!  Keep going, and you'll make it!

ripppp

I've played two and won one this evening.

I know I let the initiative slip in my first game and made a number of noticeable blunders.

My second game started off well, there was a few moves in the middle where I felt under pressure and I think my opponent missed forcing an exchange of Queens.  But I managed to see a way to force his King into a corner and deliver a checkmate. 

The games here if anyone wants to look.  I think the turning point for me was when I capture the rook on move 19. 

Thanks for all the kind responses and advice. 
 

Great work! You played well.

A very general and brief overview: Nh6 could've been a mistake, as your opponent should have gone Bxh6. That would mean you lose a knight because you can't take back (if you do, Qxf7 is checkmate). Bxe5 was also a mistake because you're giving up a whole Bishop for one pawn. Good job finding Qxa1, and it's fantastic that you created a mating net! I think you're doing great 

I don't like 6...Nh6 because white could've captured with 7. Bxh6 and you would've been in a world of trouble. If you then recaptured with 7...bxh6, then white would have checkmate with 8. Qxf7#.

Congrats on not giving up and on your win. This was such a tricky game from beginning to end, with an abundance of threats (multiple mate in one threats). I'm not saying game play was great, but navigating this mine field is no small feat. 

Don’t sweat it! Remember, openings aren’t AS important as studying tactics and strategy. No one below 1400 in my opinion really knows much about openings. Just study the positions and look for checks, captures and threats. 

Looks like Aida_Amin beat me to it. To add a little more, a better move would've been 6...Nf6, as it blocks the white queen's line of attack and develops your knight to a more active square. In any event, glad to see you bounced back from the threat and got the win!

I haven't run through the analysis yet (I'm not a full member so can only do so many a day), when I do I'll look over my mistakes etc..

I didn't want to play 6... Nf6 for some reason, I can't see why now but something made me go for Nh6. I might have been trying to deny g4 and f 5 to my opponent. I hadn't castled by then and thought the Knight was well defended by the pawn on g7. I guess my opponent thought so too. 

With Bxe5 I did not think that White would take back with the queen. I expected him to scuttle it away to d5.  I was a bit shocked when he countered. 

I was sweating when juggling the Knights around the middle trying to defend my pieces while at the same time get his queen away. In fact I'm more impressed I managed that than the mate at the end. 

I think you're being way too hard on yourself.

If you're looking for positives in your game, then after move 19 you have a really excellent position. Really excellent. It's the kind of position I'd like to have.

I think part of the reason you lost the game is that you were way too passive in how you played after move 19. So, you played 20.a4, which doesn't do anything rather than 20.Qxb6, which takes out Black's completely undefended b-pawn and would have secured you the win, I think, against anything Black could have done.

The only other advice I could give you is always know where your towel is. And, possibly, buy sunscreen.

Hi! My name is Lauren Goodkind and I’m a chess coach based in California. Sorry to hear about your loss. The truth is, that everybody has to lose.  Take this loss into a learning experience.  Before you make a move, I want you to consider all checks and captures before each move.  Do you have any good checks?   Remember, you play chess to have fun, right?  

To go back to your first post, you've been trying to memorize the openings and you played 1.e4 d5 2.d4? That's a mistake on the second move - anything other than 2.exd5 is inferior. Admittedly not likely to be a fatal mistake at the lower levels, but you'd do better to just think it through: what happens if I take the Black pawn? He can recapture with the queen, then I play Nc3, which attacks the queen, so it has to move again. Loss of tempo for Black. Whereas what you played simply loses a pawn for you.

I don't think you've given any reason for you to actually give up. Maybe the closests reason is the fact when you analyze your own games you see so many faults? Such is natural, your only human, the fact your making mistakes is to be expected. 

The key is being able to grow and move on from those mistakes. If you can't handle the fact you may playing poorly, then don't play at all. However, if you can accept your going to make mistakes, and possibly even to lose, then enjoy the game for what it is and keep going.

I believe in understanding one's abilities and faults to be an important attribute. So if you understand where your game is lacking, then you can focus on improving that aspect as best you can. The fact you find your own faults and mistakes is part of the process of improving. 

Accept the blunders, learn from them, learn from the losses, and focus on improving rather than perfection. Most importantly keep trying to enjoy the game, as its just a game for fun in the end!

You should put Model Mates on your list of things to study. With a good knowledge of Model Mates, you wouldn't have missed 22. Qb8+. It's a prototypical Mayet's Mate.

This is exactly right.

I would strongly recommend (to @ThinWhiteDuke85) a basic "opening principles" video. 

Chess Basics: Opening Principles -- definitely worth 8 minutes of your time.

It's not quite that simple.

After 1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Black must move the Queen again, so he has lost a tempo, yes... but so has White! The White e-Pawn moved twice (e2-e4xd5) and then disappeared from the board, in exchange for a Black d-Pawn that moved only once before disappearing from the board. White, also, has lost a clear tempo.

The Scandinavian (1. e4 d5) is slightly (only slightly) inferior for Black, yes... but not for the reason you've given. It's because the Scandinavian leads to Caro type central formations (after Black's inevitable ... c6 move) and there are better ways for Black to reach those formations.

@blueemu, I am only demonstrating a useful thought process. I agree it's not that clear cut, but the black Queen has to go somewhere when attacked by the knight. If it goes back to d8 (in my opinion the best retreat) there really is a loss of tempo - White has one piece out to Black's none and it's White's move. If to a5 it will almost certainly get hit again in the next few moves, leading to a real loss of tempo, while on d6, the other standard retreat, it obstructs the development of the dark-squared bishop. I play the Scandinavian myself, so I have nothing against the opening, but the thought process I'm suggesting is a good one to recommend to a beginner, and leads to a good position rather than the bad one following 2.d4 so there's no need to complicate things.

I know effectively no "openings" and currently float between 1000-1100. I don't know how much stock you put in chess celebrities (just because they can play doesn't mean that can coach) but Alexandra Botez says focus on puzzles and tactics and don't "learn openings" until 1500 I believe it was. I don't know if I agree with that number but the idea makes sense to me. 

Oh, I don't consider myself any good, by the way. And I've discovered when I open with king's pawn I seem to bite the dust really quickly - I must be falling into too many traps. Queen's pawn works better for me. Try a different opening (I mean just the opening 1 or 2 moves) and just use tactics. I really find it's just about not making blunders, avoiding obvious traps and being able to see just 1 opponent's move ahead. 

Oh and yeah I've almost quit as well. Before my last half dozen games or so, I lost or drew like 14 out of 15 games. Some of them I was winning but lost on time, which is the worst. Surprised I didn't smash anything against the wall. Even my last game that I won, I made at least 2 absolutely idiotic moves. Managed to get the win but felt like a loss to me. It just takes a lot of practice and failures to improve.

Game 1  - 15.Nd5 wins a piece and 22. 23. 24. 25. Qb8+ and mate next move.  26. 28.Qb7 mate.