Asking for some help with analysis

Good afternoon everyone!

I played a casual game at my local chess club today which I felt like I played fairly well up until move 25, at which point I blundered the game away. However, the reason that I'm asking for help with analysis is because I felt like I had the advantage as Black after move 10, but somehow my advantage seemed to drift away. Here's my thought process about how the game went.

Any advice or commentary that you would be willing to offer will be greatly appreciated!

Cheers,

John

I didn't go through the whole game, but here are some thoughts...

8. Qf4 has to be a mistake. It moves the same piece twice in the opening, and a piece that shouldn't have been developed that early in the first place. Therefore look carefully for a refutation after these two weak moves in a row. How about 8...Nd4, which threatens a fork by ...Nxc2+, as punishment for the queen moving away from its being able to protect the c2-square?

White's knight sitting in your territory at g5 is dangerous. Somewhere in there you should have evicted it, maybe by ...h6.

16...c4 is playing on the flank when you should be playing in the center. I believe freeing your pieces with 16...d5 would have been better. That would free your KR, QB, queen, and notice how White's kingside is unprotected with pieces: you should start to have some mating threats with your KN, QB, and Q moving in there on the newly opened lines and threatening those protecting pawns, forcing them to advance and weaken the kingside.

18...f5: same problem: playing on the flank instead of the center. Again, strive for ...d5: 18...bxc4 19. Bxc4 d5 20. exd5 exd5 and you have a simultaneous attack on queen and bishop, which should result in a win of material.

Nice game. Thanks for sharing.

I thought you could have attacked more quickly on the queenside. For example, when white played 12. Nf3.

I think 15. ... Bb7 is nice. But you have to follow this up with pressure against e4. So I think 16. ...c4 is probably a mistake and the place where you small advantage slipped away. I would play 16. ... d5 to try to open up the long diagonal your bishop is on. In addition, 16. ... c4 just loses a pawn doesn't it? 16. ... c4 17. dcx4 bxc4 18. Bxc4.

I agree that Rc8 or d5 would be better than your 17. ... Re8.

And I agree that 18. ... f5 does not help. In fact after 21. Qd2 we reach the following position and it is looking a little bit bad for black. White has two nice bishops of great diagonals. Your knight never really recovered from going out on the rim (you should think about whether 9 ... Nh5 was really a good move; you say you wanted to win tempi but it seems to me you lost tempi because your knight was out of position).

White missed a massive opportunity when he played 24. Bxd5. He could have won a piece with 24. Bxf6 Qxf6 25. c4. The fact that this tactical opportunity existed was symptomatic of the fact that your position had fallen apart. 
 

Thank you so much for the responses! I have added all of your notes to my analysis of this game, and I will continue to review.