Looking for advice

I had posted this in the Game Showcase but as I am still a player looking to improve on his game, I would like your opinions and expertise on what moves could have been made differently to gain the advantage earlier (or in my case, prevent myself from going down to near-defeat!).

First I would probably have done 4. Nd5 instead of 4. Na4. Your knight would have done more good in the middle of the board.

EDIT: oh nevermind. Steven is right Na4 is better.

You missed another opportunity by not playing 7. Bg2. Black would have had no way to avoid you taking his rook. By the time you went after this rook with 8. Qf3, he had already developed enough for his rook to no longer be vulnerable.

Your right saying that 11. e6 was a dumb move because you are just hanging your pawn. 12. f5 was a good move though.

14. Qh3 was another mistake you made. You should have seen the fork that his knight was about to do and instead done 14. Bxe3 to prevent it.

I probably would not have done 18. b4 to try to break his chain of pawns. Instead I would have played Qe6+.

You might had had an opportunity at mate after you finally did play Qe6+. If at move 22 you attacked his e5 pawn with your knight and then your rook, you would lose them both but he would have to move his f6 pawn in the battle. Then you could play 24. Bg5. Since his bishop is pinned by your queen, and his queen is too far away to help, I don't think he could have avoided you playing Qxe7++ for the win. He probably would have thrown in a few last-ditch checks with his queen, but you would have had mate in one as soon as he didn't put you in check.

If black was playing well you would have had no chance after 23... Qxa4+. He should have immediately attacked with his queen and rook and also castled instead of moving his king. Luckily for you though, he made some dumb moves.

I'm not good enough to really know what I'm talking about, but I think these are some things you could have done to beat him earlier without relying on him to make those mistakes.

I think 4.Nd5?? hangs the knight. 

Once you were up in material, you should have been looking to trade pieces.  On move 14 you could have swapped off your undeveloped bishop for his knight, then swapped off a bishop and queen on d7, then retreated your knight to c3. 

44-...... Qf1 45- Rg2  d2

You lost a tempo right off the start.  3.Nc3??  This was guaranteed to be met with a pawn push to make your Knight run for the hills.  You would have been better served to make a move such as 3. exd5 Qxd5 4. Nc3 to toss the tempo loss to your opponent.

1) Knight forks. 2) Forks. 3) Tactics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_tactics

How you decided to handle the Knight forks, in this match, stands out to me most (in critical summation).

5.Nxc5 ?  (or Bxb5)

Actually I learned to play in about... eh, third or fourth grade (am nearly 20 now). I've never truly studied the game, however, and that is why I'm posting here wanting to learn how to be more effective and to counter certain moves, see what's coming, etc. Basically I'm here 'cause I want to improve my game.

For what it's worth I haven't really played significant amounts of chess in several years.

1. e4 e5

That's what you should've played.  Much easier for beginners.

I was playing as white...

since i am not an elegant player, i would have done 7. bg4

Velocity wrote:

I was playing as white...

My mistake - well in that case, the Knight (Na3) move cost you a lot of tempo.

If you want something to play against the sicilian I would strongly recommend 2.c3.  You get a very nice game from it, avoid all the pet lines, often take your opponents out of book completely, and it's totally sound, unlike f4 wich I think is ?!  Also, it goes well with the advance french, if you play that.