Hello, I need help with my Chess.com games.

Hello, I'm terrible and I heard that it is better to have my games analyzed by a person instead of an engine. Okay, my rating is at around 500 and I've improved to the point that I don't get my queen captured now I have to get to the point that I actually win or draw. I don't know how to actually annotate games real well, but here's the game. I know that I need to learn how to slow down and think things through on slow classic games and I'm horrible on 5 or 3 min. games. I usually play the Ruy Lopez on White and don't play to well on Black and currently trying to learn the Sicilian Defense.

The improvement you need is actually not that great.

Your opponent played with a single purpose- to mate you.

Thus you see moves like Bd3 , Bc2, Qf3, Qe2 and eventually Qd3 are all played with one aim- lining up the bishop and queen to attack your king.

Had you noticed, you could have stopped him easily.

But you didn't notice, and so got mated.

You need to play with a purpose. Trying to mate your opponent is a good one.

As you get better, you won't be able to be so direct.  Such direct attacks are often easily repulsed.

But for now you are still at the stage where thinking about what your opponent is doing is not something you do.

On move 2, your opponent played Qh5. Do you ask yourself why? What is the threat?

Does Nf6 stop it?

No.

Look at Qd3. Did you not see the point of all those moves?

No, I still have trouble with seeing other players plans. In hindsight, I should have seen it coming like a snake that would bite me. Thank you for helping me and the advice.

Thank you. I agree that I'm playing like there's no opponent. I really need to learn how to see the opponents plans as well as my own. I'm trying to annotate my games as well. I recently played a game on playchess.com and tried to annotate the game after I played it.

Free pawn at early game? Next lesson you will realise even 1 pawn can decide who will win.

Hello, I have just recently (+-10 days) picked-up the game after a 20 year hiatus and think my insight may prove useful to you. Disclaimer: I never studied the game or played seriously and though I recognize a few openings, my play really amounts to applying those few principals I understand, many of which can be obtained in seconds for free either on this site or via a quick Google search. After having analyzed most of the games I have played on this site in the past 10 days or so, one thing is abundantly clear to me: at our level of play, games are characterized as well as lost/won by blunders, on both sides: not inaccuracies, simple mistakes or lack of planning or harmonious development. Not mastery of openings, nor accurate play, nor even truly understanding the opponent's plan should such a thing exist beyond a very embryonic stage. Blunders, pure and simple. So, my advice to you is this: use an engine to analyze your games to identify your blunders and then try to understand why they are blunders. For example, did you leave a piece hanging? Did you miss a free capture? Did you miss a mating opportunity? Did you exchange an active bishop for one that was boxed-in and useless? Then, develop the habit of asking yourself these questions during play, just like good Youtubers do with their chess commentary, in order to reduce the number of blunders you commit per game. I think this will prove a much more productive use of your time than trying to learn openings and would wager that your rating will dramatically improve as this aspect of your playing comes under control. Not saying opening knowledge is useless, just that the ability to "sustain focus" throughout a game seems key towards progressing to a level of play were things like "book knowledge" an "accurate positional play" become more relevant. Good luck to you, man.

Thanks for all the good advice. I have Chessbase15 and I also have that old book about Chessbase written around 2015 which I'm trying to learn how to use it to analyze my games from now on. I use tactical analysis, but I select coarse because I'm a beginner. I'll start using it to analyze my games and also try and annotate my games as well on Chessbase. I decided to start studying chess more seriously after I got the Chessbase book. It was written for Chessbase 12, but the features it talks about still apply for later ones. I'm about half way through the book now.

Uobonomogatari...Unless you were being facetious, that kind of statement, though it may have been well intentioned, strikes me as really ill-considered.  It is one thing to commiserate with a fellow player and try to help him along and quite another to publicly cast aspersions on a person's reputation. Even a cursory glance at the game, literally from its opening  to its ending, should suffice to convince anyone that this type of play is quite human and riddled with blunders. If you go through any of my blitz games on this site you will quickly realize that both myself and my opponents play many, many, "excellent" and "good" moves per game, despite our lowly ratings: I myself was quite struck by this fact when I started analyzing my games and there is nothing even remotely suspicious about this type of thing. Burks's opponent did exactly the same as well as ultimately capitalizing on an unfortunate game-losing blunder by PB.

Whoa, I didn't want this to get out of control. I know I'm not good, but I'm not going to go and complain about an opponent because he may or may not have been doing something wrong. I have a lot of blunders in my game and I'm wanting learn how to improve and win. The truth be told the real reason is around the early 2000s, I was playing a friendly game between a so called friend and he didn't have his queen and king set up right. I had mine set up right, but he insisted that it was correct. I wasn't really being serious about the game then, so I went ahead and played anyway and I lost the game. Fast forward about 15 years and we got a Hastings and I picked up a copy of Fritz 13 and I played a few games on it, but wasn't really serious about chess. Around 2016, I bought Fritz 14 and I from the Chessbase website and I was very interested in chess, but not really serious. It wasn't till I bought Chessbase 15 and I got the Chessbase Complete book for my kindle and started reading it just recently and was following the book on the features that Chessbase has along with several Youtube videos that I found about Chessbase and the new features that Chessbase 15 has that I got really serious into studying my games as I play them. I hate to be this way, but I don't want this to get into an argument fest. I don't know how to stop commenting on the Chess.com forums. I wish I could stop them. So, lets get along. Take a real deep breath and let's talk chess.

Thank you for that annotation Laskernephew. Can I copy it for my game. It will give me a good example of how to annotate my games. I liked the move you gave for 8... Bd6!. I should probably leave fianchetos alone till I actually can study them. And it puts pressure on the Queen on f4. On 9... Qd7 and 11...Qe6 I guess I pulled my queen out to early and was being a little to aggressive with it. On 13...Ne4 I was to aggressive with my knight and thought that I could go on the offensive with it. On 14...Qf5 the only thing I can see is the knight being pinned to the queen by the white bishop on c2 am I right? 

"On 14...Qf5 the only thing I can see is the knight being pinned to the queen by the white bishop on c2 am I right? "

Exactly. I think ghost_of_pushwood pointed it out first. Once you put the Queen on f5, the Ne4 couldn't move without exposing the queen With practice, you will become more alert to these kind of situations

Happy to play a daily game with you if you:

1. Take your time on your moves to safety check for tactics and piece safety.

2. Make notes on all of your moves, and mine about what you’re trying to achieve and what you think I am.

I (and maybe others) can then hopefully give pointers?

Yeah, that would be fine Scottrf. How do I play a daily game with you. Do I send you a friend request or something? or challenge? I don't know how to do that.

You seem to have improved quite a lot...in daily games at least.

I've able to think more thoroghly in the daily games. I can consider my options more. Gives me more time. I plateaued on the rapid games, though. I'm stuck around 500 ELO. I'm not dropping and I'm not increasing. I'm winning some and then I lose some, but at least I'm not losing all the time.

You played a pretty good game. But, play e4-e5. Forget Ruy Lopez. Learn scholars mate perfectly. Maybe fried liver also...

Forget annotations.

If u want I can play some blitz games against you while teaching. Message me if and when you want to play. Good luck.😊

Thank you very much for your comment.

 😂 Dierdre, how ironic! It is like pot calling kettle black. 

Scholars Mate and fried liver.