in a very bad situation

this is a game I (black) am playing against one friend of mine (white). As you can notice, his position is much stronger than mine, and I made some critical errors. As I am a beginner and I would like to improve my game, I would like to ask you what move could I do to counter his strong attack..

Thanks in advance 

hi tangostorm,

if this game is still in progress, you shouldn't be asking other players for advice on what to do next - it's not fair.

post it again when you're finished and i'm sure plenty of people will be willing to help. 

 

ok I lost the game by resignation. Any advice?

ok thanks

1... Nf6 was a mistake. It's important to gain tempo in the opening, and this way he gets to develop many pieces chasing your knight.

2... Ng8 is maybe better. To cut your losses.

4... Nf6 is not good. d5 was still a safe square and f6 isn't

7... h6 is somewhat passive. It protects the queen but since you are behind on material and development you could develop pieces.

8... Nc6 isn't wrong, but I'd consider Bb4 pinning the knight

12... Nb4 gets you nothing after a3 and 13... wasnt better than retreating

16... e5 is not my first choice, h5 looks better but it's not profitable yet because of the pin on Bxg5.

your resignation was a bit early, if you want to learn you can finish a game just to learn from it. Anything couldve happened and there is much opportunity for both players in this position.

Besides move 4 and 13 there weren't any real blunders I can see. Both moves were easy to prevent by maybe taking some more time.

Like most beginners, you dropped some pieces. I am sure you're aware of the errors.  However, you seem to have some real skill. Your pieces land on good sqaures.

If you want to play 1. ... Nf6, research 'Alekhine's Defense.'  It's a hypermodern opening.  There's nothing wrong with it at the class level.  Don't play it without booking up some unless you want to lose.  And yes, he'll chase your knight around some.  The idea is that he'll weaken his pawn structure by doing so and you'll be able to destroy his center and take control.  When it fails, however, you have 2 or 3 pawns in your bidnit.

 

thank you very much for all your advices! They are very useful and I am very grateful to you

Well, you didn't make it difficult for white to win.  Your opening move is based on theory and maybe philosophy as well.  I believe this is called the Alekhine's defense.  It is playable, but usually the king's knight travels to the queenside not back to the kingside.  I sometimes play this opening myself.  What is interesting about this opening is that after 2 moves your pawn formation is still perfect.  There are no weaknesses within the pawn formation.    This is the beginning of the opening theory.  Black plays to allow white to create a powerful center, and then attack the center with powerful thrusts of pawns, all the while developing pieces to good DEFENSIVE positions. If you had resigned after move 18, good for you.  There's no point in continuing a game being so much material down. And you can reset the board and play another game.  But you do some things well like your piece development and attack planning.  It's just that it's difficult to co-ordinate well when you don't have enough material.

By move 16, you are already 2 pieces down, so it's time to go all out in a do-or-die attack. So you were right in principle to try e5 to open lines against the W King.

Unfortunately, e5 has an immediate one-move tactical refutation (Nxd5), so it wasnt the best in practice

An alternative might have been to spend a move to secure your pawn on g5 before launching the h pawn. White doesn't have any immediate killer move to hand, so 16...R(d)g8, followed by 17...h5, opening the h file might keep the game alive for you. 

It might not be enough, but it would certainly give you chances.

donn_gee wrote: was that really a win?

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Oh yes!!  once you've garnered either a checkmate or a resignation, that will always constitute a win.  Should either side decide to resign is a different matter, but once the game is over, the game is over even if the tide could change should someone see it.