Analysis Please

Would someone analyze this game for me? I know I am no match for GNU Chess but I play against it occaissionally to see how well I do.

Hi Alex,

Try to analyse the game yourself first, and then ask others to look at it. That is much more instructive than asking others to analyse it for you first.

To improve we need to work hard.

Good luck.

8. Qd2 simply loses material as black demonstrated. It's a bad move. 8. Bd2 protects the knight and allows Qc2 or Rc1 to add another defender. You have to be careful here too because of 8. Bd2 dxc4 which attacks the d4 pawn a second time with the d8 queen. So after 9. bxc4 black can try to take the d4 pawn 9. ... Nxd4. But notice that white has a counter tactic 10. Nxd4 Qxd4 11. Qa4+ forking the king and bishop.

"16. ... 0-0 I'm not very familiar with these situations; I didn't know what to do."

Did you consider resigning? You're down a bishop and a rook, the game is over at this point. It's worth playing on to see how black finishes you off. But there is no reasonable plan for white other than to try to defend everything black will attack. Of course, eventually black's attack will be more powerful than white's defense.

GatoNegro wrote:

Hi Alex,

Try to analyse the game yourself first, and then ask others to look at it. That is much more instructive than asking others to analyse it for you first.

To improve we need to work hard.

Good luck.

 I've already analyzed it. Look at the annotation.

I'm not ussually one for resigning unless the situation is totally hopeless, and plus I wanted to learn from the way black played things out.

Thanks for the analysis Loomis, I see now that move #8 really lost me the game.

What would I have done after 8.bd2 dxc4  9. bxc4 Nxd4  10. Nxd4 Qxd4 11. Qa4+  Bd7 (GNU Chess's move) 12. Qxb4 Bc6 (Gnu Chess's move again)? 

Alex_M wrote:

 I've already analyzed it. Look at the annotation.

Oh okay, sorry. I hadn't seen that.

well here is your game again with my comments:

the counterplay for white is a moot point, but if there must be any form of counterplay, from move 16, perhaps trying 16. Qb4, denying black to castle.  if it was me playing black, I would respond by playing 16...Qe7.  Black has no need to castle if he's up significant material. 

Secondly, this game was lost on one bad blunder of not seeing far enough to recognize the consequences of the bad move on move 8. 

There's really not much that can be said after a quick series of blunders.  Better luck next time.

Thaks guys. You were a big help. It's funny how one little mistake can lead up to bigger and bigger advantages and eventually cost you the game.

While the game was decided long before this move, 18. g3 was a very damaging move, since it weakened your king.  You might have considered other options for defending your king, such as Qd2, Qf3, Re2 or Rf1.

Yeah, I see what you mean. Thanks again.