Illin' Sicilian

I played black in this game. I'm not sure exactly where it all went wrong, but I do have some general thoughts. Firstly, I guess the point of the Sicilian is to through white off balance, which I completely neglected to do. Secondly, I never managed to make any use of my Queen's bishop, which I knew was going to be a problem from the moment I played e6. Thirdly, I stranded my knight on the edge of the board as far away from the action as possible. Finally, there were a few instances when I was on the attack where I probably should have exchanged material (especially the queens), but put it off thinking I could win something outright a little later. As it turns out, I couldn't, and his material ended up getting a positional advantage. I didn't put a ton of commentary in the game, but I feel pretty good about narly all of the moves I didn't comment, so let me know if any of those look dubious. Where did it really go wrong for me here? How can I know if it's better to exchange (especially on minority attack)? How can I get an unbalanced game going in the Sicilian while staying defended? And, what is a good way to get the queen's bishop working in the Sicilian?

Thanks, but I'm more interested in what happened earlier than that, particularly with Black's play.

5... h6 to chase the knight away weakened your kingside pawns pretty signifigantly, which white exploited later on. 5... Nc6 would have been alot stronger. Threatening to put your knight on d4 would have forced his knight back to f3 eventually

16... d4 was a mistake that should have cost you your knight, luckily white didn't see it.

 

I think you were doing fine untill your move 15....Qd6. If you had simmply played Nc6, you are doing better than your opponent, and you have no need to worry about your bishop. His one was doing little anyway, and there is no need to rush it into the game.

Hmmm, ok. He would probably play 16. Qxc5, no? Maybe 15... Nd7 is even better?

i dont know the answers to your more general questions.

but thoughts on the specifics:

a) the weakening caused by ...h6 quickly turned into the major source of counterplay for W

b) I would prefer defending the h6 pawn with ...Kh7 rather than g5. 16...d4 was clearly a blunder; instead 16...Ng6. Both these options maintain a more compact, defensible K position.

c) yes, ...Na5 was an error. Your undeveloped Q side needs attention first

6. h6 was a big problem, especially if you plan on castling kingside.  The knight isn't a threat and it weakens your pawn structure.  Better is Nc6 here which is the thematic move and usually goes along with the kingside bishop fianchetto.  Usually its played earlier too.  You'll notice that in eventually trying to defend that h pawn from his queen you end up opening your kingside to attack and that's what white moves to exploit.