Did I exchange too much for nothing?

When you saw that player double the pawns in front of his king, he did it because he had a plan in mind, not because he just felt like it.  Don't weaken your defense and pawn structure without any goal whatsoever.  Also, sometimes it is necessary to castle queenside (but only do it for a reason).

Really I'd recommend Tactics Trainer to start with, so you'll understand the important tactics of discovered attacks, pins, skewers and forks, piling pressure onto a pinned piece, attacking multiple pieces. Tactics is the thing to learn before anything else.

Chess Mentor really helped me too.

Also the opening you always play is called the Ruy Lopez, you could look that up on Game Explorer and see some of the variations. For instance when you played your usual Bb5 and your opponent played d7-d5, that was a bad move for him to play. He created a pin on his knight (it couldn't move). You might have followed up with c3, preparing d4 which would have dominated the center.

Hope that helps!

First things first.

On move 4, you could have taken his undefended pawn with 4.Nxe5.

With 10...Ng6, he attacks your pawn on f4 twice, but it is defended only once. You do nothing about this! So he takes it.

Your 12.Nc5 moves the knight to a square where it is attacked and undefended. Your opponent takes it. This alone is usually enough by far to lose the game.

Similarly, your 14.Qh5 attacks his bishop, which is undefended, and he does nothing about it! You take it. That mistake by him alone is usually enough by far to lose the game.

On move 18, you could have taken his pawn d4.

Your 19.Rg5 attacks his pawn on e5, but fails to defend your pawn f2. He takes that pawn, and then you don't take on e5!

All the rest, doubled pawns et cetera, even more advanced tactics, have a much lower priority than the basic "defend your pieces, take undefended pieces of his".

Also you should start looking at what your opponent can do. If you're about to move X, what are the dangerous things your opponent can do in return? You should always at least check all his possible captures and checks. And if it turns out the move isn't safe, don't do it!

@ Jackofalltrades

Thx for the reply!

Yes i normally do play scot but i forgot recently ive been bringing out the bishop early! Didnt know the name of it though so thanks for that!

Thanks for your insight on the follow up move with c3/d4, I now see what a good centre grab that would have been! :)

@

, you raise a number of interesting points! Thanks for taking the time to look at my game :)

@Scarblac, you raise a number of interesting points! Thanks for taking the time to look at my game :)

1)ahh the undefended pawn! cant believe i missed that! Was Bxc6 a good move then in this case, because it would have allowed me to play 4.Nxe5 or would it have been better to have kept that knight pinned?

2)"With 10...Ng6, he attacks your pawn on f4 twice, but it is defended only once. You do nothing about this! So he takes it." Yes that was careless of me :(, as is the following knight move which causes me to lose a piece.

3)"Also you should start looking at what your opponent can do. If you're about to move X, what are the dangerous things your opponent can do in return? You should always at least check all his possible captures and checks. And if it turns out the move isn't safe, don't do it!" Very wise words ill keep them in mind next time i play, Thanks! :)

Thankyou all! :D