Frustrating and trapped in a game

Hi folks!  I've had plenty of bad games.  I think bad games were invented based upon my mistakes.    But this is example of the most FRUSTRATING game i've ever played.  Why?  I feel trapped and smothered.  How did it go so wrong when I THOUGHT I was following CCT and Opening Principles and placing pieces where they 'belonged.'

Can I get some serious eyes on this please?  I know I kept moving my Queen (blush) but, well, I couldn't figure what to do (obviously).  Input would be dearly appreciated.  Thank you!

Daily Game and I'm white.

why Qe2, I thought you were trying to long castle bit that obviously did not happen, in fact you casted the other way instead.

I was waiting to castle to see which side they chose but they too were putting it off. I wanted long castle but was worried.

ADDED: I finally because of being worried, castled kingside just to get safe because I was sliding OUT of the first 10 moves and was therefore behind in castling.

@Exotik_Chess Yes. I need to do better job of annotating my thinking. I remember now that counting the take-take-take ... and depending upon the order that OP played in taking, I was worried that e4 pawn would be short on protection so I wanted my Queen to 1) move up to connect the two rooks and 2) still protect e4.

Thank you for reminder to annotate more clearly my plans and thoughts in a game!!

ADDED: But I have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA why I moved Queen to e3. I must have planned a diagonal strike battery with my BS bishop.

It’s not exactly the queen to e2 which is the problem, the problem is you sacking the bishop, instead if you wanted to stop suffocating, I would have play a4, trying to open up lines for your rooks to start an attack, this would have also helped gain space.

You're playing on the wrong side of the board. In games where players have castled on opposite sides, the best strategy to win is to attack your opponent on the side where their King resides. In this case you start marching pawns in the Queenside while the pawns on the Kingside stay put to protect your King. Your opponent meanwhile will launch a pawn storm on the other side, targeting your King. It becomes a race who's attacking army arrives first.

For example, in this game Stockfish wanted you to play 14. a4 to advance your pawns, instead you moved your Bishop to your Kingside, putting the Bishop in line of the pawns that are marching towards your King. Then it got trapped.

Gotham chess has some content covering this but I don't have specific links on hand.

@Ineffaceable - great name by the way! You are absolutely correct, thank you. By that point in the game, I was screaming "I CAN'T BREATHE - GET BACK!" hahah! I'm hoping to figure how to give myself space prior to that. a4 had been my thinking before I panicked but only because it was the only 'in between' move I could think of.

Funny that just the game prior with same OP (my sister), I had used Queen/Rook attack similarly. But I didn't think of it in this game. I was too busy muttering about 'stupid game' ... :-)

One other thing. You are a bit constricted by the enemy Bishops so playing a3 and h3 to kick out the Bishops would be higher on my list. I would certainly try to play h3 first, before castling, that way I can follow up with g4 and O-O-O. Pushing g4 in front of your King can be unsafe.

The first phase of your development looks good, better than I've seen in some of your other games. After 8 moves your Knights are out, your Bishops too and your Queen. But you aren't done yet. To still need to get your King to safety, and find a good squares for both your Rooks.

When you felt trapped in the position you couldn't find a strong move and picked a pointless move like 10. Qe3 instead, which at least looked safe enough. It's probably easier to make a plan if you think about where you want your pieces to be. For example: There's one open file, thus your Rook should go to d1, you can go for O-O and Rd1, or O-O-O. Etc.

Thank you, Duck!! Good to see you! I never really understood which side to push depending upon which sides castle. Oh this answers questions in many of my games! Very helpful! I also struggle in pushing pawns. I confess:

"Hello. My name is d4. And I am a fraidy-cat pawn pusher."

Actually. I shouldn't say that since someone I'll play may read it but ... well, I always over-talk and always get myself in trouble with my mouth. I must work at remembering the saying, "A closed mouth gathers no foot."

EDITED: when I say mouth, I also mean (almost-always) text.

Your unmotivated exchange of Pawns - 4. dxe4 - was the start of your problems. White has no advantage whatsoever in that position... Black has achieved an equal game on move four!

In fact, 4. dxe4 is considered to be a reliable drawing line. People don't play it for a win.

Predojevic vs Ivanisevic (2012) TCh-HUN 2012-13

Why not 4. c3 instead? Or even 4. Ne2 which would give SOME point to your 3rd move 3. Bd3.

Uhhhhh ... to win?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I know what you're saying though ... it's no longer a game if there isn't the power struggle. How boring if I always won. OH WAIT ... I DO ALWAYS WIN! Thank you for the reminder!! We ALL win every game even if we lose.

Qe3 in my opinion was the beginning of the end, it wasted a tempo, which led to you losing space., i wouldve castled earlier, and not played Dxe5, other than that you did good

- The simple way, follow opening principles: Knights before Bishops, 3.Nc3 - 4.Nf3 and then decide where to put the bishops depending on your opponents responses (likely to c4 and e3) but stay flexible and look at the board

- Having said that, Bd3 is a good move in theory, engines like it, but then you need to push d5 on move 4 to gain space, by exchanging into a symmetric position where your bishop is misplaced, you let your opponent off the hook instantly.

- when they played f6, you could have anticipated g5, leaving you with a passive bishop, so moving it to e3 makes more sense. exchanging pieces when being a bit cramped can alleviate the pressure

- work on not getting impatient in uncomfortable positions. yes, your opponent has the advantage but there is still a lot going on. with Bxe5, you're just resigning basically => I'd probably attempt a4 to get a bit of counterplay. yes, they can take on b3 but you get the open c file and the position was bad enough to not care about structure too much. Another option could've been waiting with Rfe1 just activating another piece and see if your opponent gives you an opportunity with their next move. Your opponents are at similar strength as you, they also make mistakes and get impatient. By being resilient, you might annoy them into blundering

- First of all do not move your pieces multiple times during the opening stage of the game.

- The move that really gave you the troubles was the move 16-Bg5??. As you had opposite-side castled you handed your opponent a target of attack where he could pawn-storm your kingside, but also your bishop was trapped by the opponents pawns.

One of the most straightforward ways to generate active play is to form and maintain a Pawn duo... that's two Pawns side-by-side.

So if you started the game with 1. d4, then you can often get active chances by arranging to play a Pawn to c4 or e4 - either immediately or after due preparation - and then maintaining the Pawn duo until it seems advantageous to "cash it in" for a different advantage.

Similarly, after 1. e4 White should already be thinking about arranging to play a second Pawn to either d4 or f4 and maintain it there until it is advantageous to break up the Pawn duo.

This is another reason why I didn't like your 4. dxe5 Pawn exchange. You liquidated your Pawn duo and got nothing in return.

As pointed by blueemu, 4.dxe5 is serious strategic mistake, giving up your centre. The only principled move is 4.c3, keeping nice centre. This is why you should study master games. No GM would ever consider dxe5. 10.Qe3 is completely absurd, although not losing. 15.h3 creates so called hook, which makes easier for your opponent to open file against your king. 16.Bg5, 17.Bh4: “my opponent please throw all your pawns against my king and crush me “. 19.Bxe5 - Nobel prize math: 1 is more than 3. 21.Rxd8, 22.Nxe5, 23.Rd1: “exchange everything when you are piece down”, favourite song of sheeps going to slaughter.

What an incredible response. I can't thank you all enough. You've given me so much insight that this will help in all my games! It will take a bit to work through all the great input here and I'll be back with response once I work through everything.

Please do not think that ANY of your input is overlooked or underappreciated by me. Every word here is important. This forum ... made up with wonderful people like you all ... is why I'll never leave this website, until I can no longer breathe on this earth. Thank you all so very much for helping me get better at this game. :-)

Honestly, I have never been so blessed as to receive so much insightful and helpful input.