Analysis of a Good Game

[I post my wins in this forum under the theory that if I lose I'm at such a low level there will be obvious blunders that lead to the loss but if I win my mistakes are far less obvious, so that's why this game is a win.]

This is, statistically, my best win (against my highest rated opponent). We played four games and he crushed me in the other three. I want to know where I could have improved my play in this one.

Thanks for checking it out guys.

Cool game that went through all the phases of chess, opening middle game, and endgame. There were some elementary mistakes I can see in all the phases.

5.Qxd4 this is perfectly fine, but you could consider taking with the knight as his opening play with his queen is not "correct" and you could try to exploit this. Blacks queen deprives the knight of the natural f6 square, trading queens gives black this square back.

8.Bd3 I dont like the position of the bishop on this square, I would have like to have it on e2 or c4. I think f3 or Be2 should have been played to avoid the annoying Ng4. Castle long would also have been better.

9.Nd1 Well this is just wrong. "Undeveloping" moves are almost always bad, I guess you were trying to avoid getting your pawns doubled but it just fails as your knight is hanging anyway. Castling either way would have been much better

17.dxc5 17.Nxd6 just wins a pawn if not two, as your threatening Nxc8 followed by Bxa6

18.Rae1. Well its good to get your rooks to an open file but Nd6 again will atleast win the bishop. You also got a threat of Bc4+ followed by Nf7+. This is better for tactical reasons. His knight on a6 is kind of loose

22.Be6 I dont really like this move. Offcourse black would love to trade his knight for the bishop, but he just cant as the rook endgame is hopeless. But say here: 22...Rb8 23.b3 Nb5 His knight has acually managed to find some activity. Its better to maintain the bishop where it is, dominating the knight, and playing Re7 followed by Re1. The bishop vs knight endgame is actually a fairly trivial matter to convert should the rook be traded off.

22...Nxe6 This is a poor judgement by black, the endgame is hopeless.

30.30.Rxe7+ This is an easily winning endgame, but the way your pushing your pawns forward is not really neccesary. On principle in the endgame: Activate your king, instead of pushing your pawns: Bring your king to the center. It just eliminates any kind of hope he might have. The way you played it he had some chances of bringing his king back to the kingside. Maybe the endgame is even a draw after that. Im not sure, ill leave to others to judge, but if you activated your king the endgame would have been much easier.

2.Nc3 allows Black to play 2...Nf6, which is the Vienna Opening. This opening is thought to be harmless for Black and passive for White, and it is easier for Black to equalize. 2...c6 and 3...Qf6 were both bad, one developing the queen and allowing her to be attacked and the other blocking the knight’s most natural square. 

Taking with the queen may not have been so good. Better was 5.Bg5, then when the queen moves 6.Nxd4. 

8...Ng4?! allows the simple 9.0-0! If he retreats his knight, he has lost a tempo. If he plays a bland move, play h3 or f3 and force him to retreat. If he takes your bishop, play fxe3 and now the doubled isolated pawns, normally thought to be bad, cuts you a nice swath of territory that can be easily protected with pieces. Furthermore, the f1 rook’s file is opened. 

10.Nxe3 is better, to justify your previous knight move. 

The endgame was well played. You may have tried too hard to simplify the position, but the opponent decided to swap in the end so no harm done. The king and pawn endgame was a dead win, and in no way “delicate” at all. I can’t find any line that can force a draw. I can’t even find a line that would force the opponent to play carefully in order to win. The only way you could lose was to blunder. 

In general you won pretty convincingly and this may not be the most instructive game to analyse but since you asked 35. a7(?) and 36. a8=Q(?) show bad technique. It didn't matter here, but both moves lost a tempo over immediate Kf2 which could have proved costly if the race had been closer.

In general, it would be good idea to activate the king earlier when the endgame begins aproaching. In the game Kf2 could have been played for example at turns 29,  31, 32, 33 (what's the point of g3 anyway?) in all cases probably gaining some time since white's winning idea is to eat the kingside pawns.