2 Games played at a chess night, won one lost one. Tips for a beginner?

Hello everyone, my name is Righchess and I wanted to show two games, one which I won and one which I lost versus the same person SwgMster123. We played these games at a Chess Night in Kenosha, they were fun games! I am just trying to stick to basic opening principles and really getting concepts down before I try to study openings and such, this was reccomended for a beginner like me. Anyway here are the games! I tried to convey my thoughts as accurately as possible, I do go into quite a lot of detail so yeah haha. 

And now onto the second game which was longer and I lost. 

Thank you in advance for the analyses and I would really appreciate it if you analyzed! I haven't looked at any computer optimal moves yet as well as I have been told that I should only do that after other people and myself analyze. 

Here is my analysis of the second game. I don't think 2. ... Nc6 is too bad though Nf6 would probably have been better. You missed some tactics in the middle. At the end of the day though, the reason you lost this game was nothing to do with playing Nf6 or Nc6. You simply hung a piece. Hope you find my comments interesting. Overall, your play was quite good and if you had not made that one bad error, who knows what may have happened. 

For the first game, a3 was not necessary. If they put you in check, then you bishop could develop and stop the check at the same time. Also, instead of pushing more pawns by playing g4 you could have put your bishop on g2 and still won the pawn. For the second game, taking the night on f3 was not necessary, yes it frees up e4, yet it gets rid of one of your more developed pieces and develops their d2 knight... When your knight took their bishop on move 15, you generally don't want to trade when you are down...

Thank you for the analysis! I really appreciate it. So maybe something I should super focus on is not hanging pieces still? Also yeah I guess my 5.Bg4 move wasn't to good because he can just move his queen and of course the knight block. So maybe I had the right idea with that knight move but had to formulate tactics around it? Do you have any main thing you think I struggled with? And yeah I never even thought of the e5 move, it just seemed not even moveable because of the bishop and d pawn defending it, but I can see that it would weaken his center, a center in which he has quite good control. 

Sorry if I am just spewing thoughts, but yeah any MAIN thing I could work on? Again thanks for the thoughts

Hmm okay I will look at that. So instead of just attacking defenders I can also look at ways to take advantage of a hanging pawn? Like developing my minor pieces like my bishop to g2 attacking the pawn and possibly preparing for castling? Do you think the g5 move and the thought process behind it was bad persay? 

Not bad, but not perfect...

Was Bg2 the optimal move there? I mean I think my pawn on g5 also really restricted the movement of his g and f pawns because block, take, or en passant. Thanks for the other ideas though always good to see other perspectives!

It ruins your pawn structure, and doesn't develop a piece... 

Yes there is. You obviously lose your games because you hang your pieces. Not to combinations, but to simple 1-move attacks or counting errors. If I were you I wouldn't bother too much about positional chess, pawn structures etc. at this stage. Play slower and check on every move that your pieces cannot be captured. Once you are able to play a complete game without obvious blunders you will have become a stronger player.

That was a bit rude, but yes, checking to see if your pieces are hanging after each move will improve your game...

Hmmm okay I will really really focus on not hanging pieces. Thank you!

...13 you really messed up. you weren't really under attack but just losing a pawn. In my opinion, I would have played Bd6 followed by 14.qxc6...Nd7

Second game, move 13, you castled and lost your bishop. Instead Qd3+ Kg1 Qb5 saves the bishop with the possible expense of the c7 pawn. However it would give you a playable position.

I like your thoughts on positions. But you primarily must focus on 1) safety of your pieces 2) activity of your pieces 3) space/control of board. The structure of pawns and such considerations will follow, but you will improve a lot by simply focusing on those three concepts each game, in each position you are faced with.

Your own analysis of the game is interesting because it shows that you have a good idea about positional ideas in chess. However, you are missing some basic tactics. In fact, you could argue that when you lost the piece it is because you missed the most basic of all tactics (a next move capture). But you also missed 5. ... e5 and you missed the opportunity to play 8. ... Bb4+. You also missed 11. ... Nd2+. These are all tactics that would have changed the game in your favour. 

I have been told that before you make your move you should examine any checks you have and any captures you have before making your move. Do they lead anywhere? If you had done this, then maybe, at least, you would have seen Nd2+ and Bb4+ (or one of them at least) although it is harder to see 5. ... e5 because it is such a quiet looking move. So this is something practical you can look at. In the same vein, before committing to a move you should check whether your opponent has any captures or checks and make sure you have a reasonable response to each.

So you need to think about development. Development and control of the center are the two most important areas of chess after material.

Development means getting all of your pieces involved and into the fight quickly and effectively.

Do you see how 4. dxc4 helps his development and hurts yours? You waste a move capturing his pawn, and he captures with a gain of tempo - he essentially gets to bring his bishop  into the battle "for free" in terms of time.

dxc4 also abandons the center, allowing him to build up an imposing pawn center. 

...Bxf3 is a similarly poor move. Your bishop is well-posted, and you take it off the board. He recaptures in a way that improves the position of his d2 knight - now it's well-posted on f3. 

You should read CHernev's Logical Chess, Move by Move, to learn the basics of chess strategy. 

Here is my brief analysis of the first game.

Agree... 

Hi @Righchess, good job in your games! One thing that I would really recommend you do (which you did really well here) is analyzing all of your serious games. If you are playing 1-minute on chess.com there's no need to analyze, but if you are playing anything longer than 10min, I think you should.

Check out this article with tips on how to improve your chess game while you analyze: http://chesswinning.com/how-to-analyze-chess-games/

Thanks for analyzing the first game as well! And yeah I think I just need to work on protecting my pieces. I watched John Bartholomews chess fundamentals and yeah I think I should start overprotecting and focusing on not making those one move blunders and such. Even though I won in 13 moves I think I need to develop more lol. I have a feeling later on in chess I will start to develop that agressive style but I need to focus on BASICS. And yeah I will definetly start focusing on any possible checks and captures and if the checks themselves are even dangerous. Like yeah why was I scared of Bb4+ when if I just devleoped my bishop and blocked he couldn't retreat down the diagonal and my pawn and knight covers c5 and d4! O_O. 

All in all I reeally appreciate the analyses, I am going to HYPERFOCUS on two things. Possible checks and captures, and protecting pieces with development and such. I have this tendency to try to calculate lots of things I guess and I can get to focused on one thing and totally forget other pieces on the board haha. 

Thanks! And awesome thanks for the Article, I think I will read it right now!