Help me analyze this game please!

This was a game that I believe I played fairly well in. The obvious blunder shows up at the end of the game where I lose my knight, but were there any other mistakes that were made along the way to get me to that position?

Thanks, much appreciated.

6. Be3. You are allowing black to play 6. ... Ng4. You don't want to let him trade for your e3 bishop, so it might have been better to play Be2 or f3 first.

10. Nb3. Why is this knight retreating? You have the chance to push your g and h pawn and open an attack on the black king.

11. f4. You want to open the kingside by pushing your g and h pawns, now it is harder to play g4. Also, you have wasted a tempo with the f-pawn. You have used two moves to get it to f4 when you could have used only one. So, you could have had this same position but with your bishop already on e2 (supporting a push of the h-pawn to h5).

12. a3. I don't see the point of this move. All pawn moves are weakening. There is no reason to weaken your position near your king instead of attacking the black king.

16. Qb6. Why do you want to trade queens? It doesn't seem to benefit you at all.

27. Nxa4. You are trading your bishop for the knight. So why not get the most out of it by 27. Bxf7 Rxf7 28. Nxa4. Then you have taken a pawn as well.

32. Nxb7. This short term greed just loses a pawn since after the moves BxR NxR Bxp you can't save your f4 pawn. Black's extra pawn is now a major advantage and should be enough to win.

38. Ne6? This is a big blunder. The knight was keeping the pawn from advancing and becoming a queen. It gives up this important duty for an attack against the bishop. Now black will make a queen  and win easily.

in the end, you didn't noticed the pawn was being protected by two queens!

10. g4!

with 11. h4! to follow building a pawn storm - do not react to black's move as much as staying on the offensive - let Black earn this respect first: this is the Dragon way.

I agree with Loomis notes.

You missed a nice tactical shot on 25.Nd5! ...attacking and trapping his rook -- Trapped, you ask? Yes, his rook has no escape because whereever the rook moves you either take it, or fork it, checking the king at the same time.  I don't see a defense.

Take a look at your 12.a3... it's really a very bad move, as Loomis has pointed out, but not such a bad idea...you should have played, 12.h3... with 12 a3 you took a square away from his N, that was a BAD square for the N anyway (undefended/unsupported and attacking nothing)... ...look at 12.h3, you take away a supported square from the enemy, (notice he attacks you from there on the very next move).

27. yes. look for that inbetween check Bxf7, that's a handy little pawn to win... Pawns matter in the end!

Then in the end, you exchange your pieces right down to a very theoretically clear ending... A bishop vs. a Knight with pawns on each wing! That ending is very well known to favor: The Bishop (doesn't mean the player with the bishop doesn't have to think...but it is definitely favorable to the Bishop...) In other words you traded down/simplified to a losing position. That's exactly the wrong thing to do.  

Also in the ending, you left your pawns on the bishop's color, so it gobbled them up... when you are fighting against a lone bishop, you must think very carefully about which color you want your pieces, particularly your pawns, on -- you almost always want your pawns on the opposite color of the bishop. (*edit -- I did this note from memory... looking at the position the color your pawns were on wasn't actually the issue in your game at this point, just a failure on your part to really look ahead... but my overall point about paying attention to which color square your pieces are on when playing against a bishop remains true, in general).

 As everyone has pointed out, Ne6 was a forehead slapper of a bad move. I think you overlooked a chess tactic fundamental: You must have thought you'd forked him, that he'd move his bishop out of danger and you might then win the pawn... but you need to know it's a common endgame tactic to allow a piece to be captured in order to promote a pawn. This is a particularly common tactic against a N. Well, there's nothing like a little experience to make a lesson clear. ;)

Oh, by the way, you wrote: The obvious blunder shows up at the end of the game where I lose my knight.

It's funny, that move doesn't really strike me as a blunder because you were already hopelessly lost at that point -- you are aware that you were lost, right? Your N had no real chance of success against the Queen. Your only hope was the Black would make a terrible blunder. If you think you were still in the game in any meaningful way, you need to get more experience -- you can't really make progress until you understand the fundamental importance of material, and the unequal value of the pieces.

25. Nd5 wins you a Rook.  I think.

Edit: Nevermind, 25... Nd3 prevents you from taking the Rook, but it still wins the Knight.

Edit #2:  Nevermind again, 26. Bxd3 still doesn't allow any safe spots along the c-file for the Rook.  If 26... Rc5 (the only new move for the Rook that isn't immediate capture), then 27. f6+ followed by 28. Nd7 fork.

Anyone else with better analysis of the series of moves, please?

About 25.Nd5! -- I pointed out that move at the beginning of the long post just before yours, emceenugget  ... It doesn't win a rook (or a full N), it wins the exchange, unless there's something very tricky I've missed... The simple 25...Rc8 lets the other rook recapture after the fork, nothing fancy needed.

... But, at the same time Black's position really falls apart from there I think. ... Black's N becomes very awkward, the f7 pawn becomes fatally weak (the dark square bishop can't defend it, and the king can't break the pin without leaving it undefended) ... the queenside pawns get gobbled. I think 25.Nd5 is winning.

Thanks for catching me on this. I'm used to the accelerated move order where black has played ... Nc6 and Bb5 isn't check. In those lines, white shouldn't allow black to safely play Ng4 attacking the e3 bishop.

thanks for pointing that out for me. i didn't know you already said that. there were a lot of posts and i only scanned through a few, probably stopped looking through by the time i got to your post. but you're right, it wins the exchange. i'm a beginner and kinda consider exchanging a knight for a rook "winning a rook", even though it just gives you somewhat of an advantage.

people do a lot of great analysis of games on here.  i'm scared to play online on this site because everyone here seems so good at spotting strong and weak moves.

i didn't know you already said that.

don't worry... nobody reads anything here

i'm scared to play online on this site because everyone here seems so good at spotting strong and weak moves.

What? Don't believe the hype! Look, you spotted Nd5! You're no doubt inspiring terror in someone yourself!

Wow this game is full of tactical failures and missed oppurunities by white. The middle game is where it all started falling apart. Your opening was sound obviously copied out of a database seeing as how your variations were direct.

I won't go into the moves that ruined it, they are too numberous and the majority of them are already discussed in other responses. I think you should spend a lot more time training you middle game becuase you seem to reach a point after following an opening line where you just stop and ask "now what?"

It was a good game for some amateurs, but  careful study is needed to stop some of the bad tactics. I notices these:

• You only look at the surface of tactical moves, not once in this game did it appear that any full analysis was given.
• You over compensate for a loss by attaching yourself to one idea like chasing the rooks.
• You probably move too fast which is why you lost your knight.

And the other thing is I have to wonder what the hell 38. ... Ne6 was. Though still losing the game, the best move was 38. ... Kc4 becasue it protects d4 which is a crucial square in this position.

I wish you luck, amateurs often have a hard time moving up in the rankings, but with a few more years of study under your belt you should be able to win a game like this.