Help for a newb anyone?

I'm new to chess, and I'm really uncertain about how to improve. I was wondering if anyone would take the time to go over this game and tell me what you think. It's pretty typical of how I play.

On move 19 I was hoping to play a combination next by playing my rook into his pawn on the c file. It would have led to a queen fork.

Well, one thing I see in your games is something I dealt with, and still deal with.  I'm no expert by any means, so take my advice just as someone who's also learning.  But, basically the exchanges didn't happen the way you had hoped and the tactical resources your opponent had appear to have caught you off guard.  You're in the same place a lot of us are.  You should go over that game and look at each exchange and see what is going on.  Then besides that, go over tactics.  Just get a good tactics book like Nunn's or Seirawan's and work through it.  Do that and you'll find the time you put into chess.com's tactics trainer will get a lot better.  Also, play simple chess.  It seems-- and this is one look at the game-- that you let it get more complicated than it needed to get.  Don't.  Play simple.  I'd say everyone should work on endings, but the big thing I see in your game was tactics, the "grammar" of the chess board.  Tal said they can only take our pieces one at a time, and the reverse is true, we might have 5 things going on on the board at once, but we can only make one move at a time-- that is why almost every tactic boils down to a double attack of some kind.

Tactics study is mandatory to improve one's game, not just to execute them, but to see them coming before the other side executes you. White employed the basic motifs not recognized apparently, i.e pins, forks, discovered attack, etc. 

Below is a good place to start:

http://www.chess.com/article/view/study-plan-directory

http://danheisman.home.comcast.net/~danheisman/Articles/Novice_Nook_Links.htm

things (on my opinion) that you have missed:

a) 2...d5

if i'm your opponent i've played 3. cxd5 Nxd5 (or Qxd5 4. Nc3 followed by e4) 4. e4..

to prevent that if i'm black i've played 2... e6 first then 3.... d5..

b) 7...Nc6

after Bd3 i think your opponent is already threathening to win a pawn.. you had your second chance he played 0-0 first you also failed to prevent losing the pawn and you also walk your queen to a knight fork adding an extra piece to the pawn that you've given away..

c) 18... Kh8

i think, your knight is well defended already on d5 so you could take your queen out of the pin now..

d) 19.... Rfe8

your opponents move 19. Nh4 here, i failed to see his point (i'm also not very good at tactics) since the f-pawn is defended by your rook.. the problem is you take off the defender to make a threat yourself..

to sum it up:

you seem to know about the game, you could have at least read a book or learned somewhere the basic principles of the game.. what is lacking in your play is seeing your opponents threat.. when i started to play chess, that is also one of my biggest problem.. sad to say i'm not sure if i already had gotten over that disease (of misjudging opponents threat) so i can't give you an advice..

but still, you can always ask others who is way better than me.. good chess gaming..

cheers!

justinwr092,

After 1.d4 d5 2.c4 Nf6?! (this move is dubious because after 3.cxd5 Nxd5  4.d4!, you have not only given your opponent the duo in the center(pawns at d4 and e4) you are also giving up tempi by having to move the knight again.  Remember the 3 advantages in chess are time, space and material.   In addition you have given your opponent 2pawns vs. 1pawn in the center.  This is an advantage that can be exploited later in the game. 

On the other hand if you chose 3.Qxd5 then he would gain time on you by playing 3...Nc3 and your Queen in addition to being out too early is wasting valuable tempi having to move again in order to keep White's Knight from capturing it.

The tactics practice advice you got is good.  Also a book I read a long time ago that helped me was, "How To Think Ahead In Chess", by Irving Chernev and Fred Rienfeld.

Adopt and strictly aply a disciplined thought process before every single move, and study tactics for 30 mins a day. 

Thanks everyone! I mean it. I'm going through all the comments and suggestions. Really good stuff.

I see that everyone is mentioning tactics... i agree and would like to suggest a site that could help, if you're looking for a (potentially) cheaper way or don't want to get a book.

chesstempo.com

It's a great site for tactics training and gives you a continuation, unlike the tactics trainer here. There's also endgame training, which I find very nice. Good luck!