personally I like to open up the game. i think pawn moves are very trick to gauge and I am not sure about the e4 advance (i don't know what the computer thinks).
Na5 is just play and hope that your opponent won't see the threat. look to play moves that make your position stronger even if the opponent makes the best reply
20...I would have personally taken the bishop. If I gotta have a piece taken, I'm taking the biggest piece I can with me.
Keep the plans simple 1. fight for control of the four center squares. 2. keep your pieces on active squares and mobile. 3. knowing where the king castles gives you a target to make end game plans on....remember if you have to lose a piece it's better to burn out than to fade away!!! take something with you.
Villyer, some comments regarding your annotations after move 26 and 27. You wrote:
26.f5 gxf5? { I should have let the pawn sit. This lets his knight onto the f5 square } 27.Nxf5 Rfe8?? { I at first only saw the fork of my c rook and king, and moved here to protect the e7 square. I missed the fork of my rooks }
Well, white ALSO threatened to play 28. Nh6 check mate!!!
Thus your remark that you should have let the pawn sit is certainly right, but your two question marks after 27... Rfe8 are wrong. With that move you at least saved your king.
If you had played 27... Rc7 (or 27... Rce8) in order to protect the e7 square and thereby save the bishop (preventing 28. Ne7+ forking king and bishop) white would have played 28. Nh6#. If you had played 27... Rfd8 giving space to the king and protecting the d6 pawn white would have played 28. Ne7+ and won your bishop for free.
Conclusion is that your move 27... Rfe8 was the best possible move since you saved your king and and your bishop and at least got his knight for your rook. I can find no better move for black after white's 27. Nxf5.
20...I would have personally taken the bishop. If I gotta have a piece taken, I'm taking the biggest piece I can with me.
I would have, but somewhere I missed the fact it was attacked. When he played the pawn advance I was sure he was going to move his bishop to b2 and attack the knight in the corner, I didn't even look into the position enough to realize it was a fork.
BlueNight, I didn't even realize there was a posibility for checkmate. I guess that makes me feel slightly better about my rook move, I wish I could claim I was choosing the best of my options :b. But the point trade with that move was even. If I had moved my Rfd8, then he would be up 3 points (1 bishop). With my move, he was up 3 points still (a pawn and a rook for a knight). Maybe if I gave him the bishop instead, my two rooks to his one could have been exploited in the endgame? As rooks generally are more powerful in the endgame (at least it seems so to me)
All in all, I faltered by taking his pawn. If he took mine I could have taken his back and that would have kept his rook out. Plus I could have created a discovered check against his king, and gained a turn.
Yeah, you have a point. One could really consider whether you should give up the bishop or a pawn and a rook for a knight.
