lost game analysis request

I cant figure out how to recreate the game easily to view with my iphone. Help with that would be appreciated

But I’m including the code if someone could do it for me please for viewing ability.

I challenged IMBacon to a game, and I feel like I played pretty decently. I made some mistakes. And starting from the beginning I felt behind the curve having never really seen the English opening often I wasn’t sure how to respond.

I made a lot of trades which in the end might ended up not really helping me but I felt forced into them, rightly or wrongly I don’t know.

I was scrambling to recover any form of attack throughout the whole game, but there were moments I felt I had opportunities that I didnt manage to take advantage of properly which could have changed the outcome.


[Site "Chess.com iPhone"]
[Date "06/17/2019 10:12"]
[White "IMBacon (1842)"]
[Black "MonoHokieSolus (755)"]

1.c4 d6 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 Nc6 4.Nc3 Be6 5.d3 d5 6.b3 d4 7.Ne4 Qd7 8.Nc5 Qc8 9.Nxe6 Qxe6 10.Nf3 O-O-O 11.Rb1 Ne4 12.dxe4 Qxe4 13.Qd3 Qg6 14.Qxg6 hxg6 15.O-O d3 16.e3 e5 17.Ng5 Rd7 18.e4 Nd4 19.Bh3 Ne2+ 20.Kg2 f5 21.exf5 Rxh3 22.Nxh3 Nxc1 23.Rbxc1 Ba3 24.Rcd1 gxf5 25.f3 e4 26.fxe4 fxe4 27.Rf8+ Bxf8 28.Nf4 d2 29.Kf2 g5 30.Ne6 Rf7+ 31.Ke3 Bb4 32.Nxg5 Re7 33.Nxe4 Bc5+ 34.Kd3 Rd7+ 35.Kc3 Bd4+ 36.Kc2 Be3 37.Nxd2 Rxd2+ 38.Rxd2 Bxd2 39.Kxd2 c5 40.Ke3 Kd7 41.Ke4 Ke6 42.g4 Kf6 43.h4 Kg6 44.Ke5 b6 45.a4 a5 46.Kd6 {IMBacon won by resignation}

 

You definitely made some positional mistakes you can learn from early, but of course you lost because you dropped a knight and later on a rook.  Just in general, I would strongly recommend playing 1. . . . e5 so you can develop simply quickly and efficiently.  Something like d6 slows the development of your dark square bishop by a move (it has to go to g7) and is a more advanced system that requires a higher level of positional knowledge to play well.  4. ... be6 is already going wrong a bit...bishop blocks one of your central pawns and is exposed there.  White doesn't mind playing d3 at all -- d3 anchors e4 if given time.  Your 5. . . .d5 prevents this, but you have moved a pawn twice in the opening, which is a loss of time.  White can get a big advantage by playing a bit more forcefully than Bacon's b3.  Still, 7. . . . qd7 is your first more significant positional mistake because your allowing IMBacon to take an important bishop with gain of time.  Exchanging knights and then playing g7 keeps the game fairly equal.  I lost interest after your blunder on move 11.  

Should I have responded to his open with knight b6?

A6 rather.

And art how do I convert my prior games into that format?

What do you mean?  Where does your light square bishop go?  We don't know yet.  On move 4 you should either play g6 followed by bg7 and 0-0 or the computer likes e5.  Bf5 looks natural, but considering that your dark square bishop belongs on bg7 and you'll need to play g6, your bishop will eventually be left without a good retreat square.  Its all kind of advanced, and you would likely just get a positionally simpler position from 1. . . . e5.  

You click on your games list and then I forget what the option is called, but there is a button that will let you convert it to PGN, save it, convert to FEN or one other option.  Convert it to PGN, then you can use the board icon on the left above the message and that will let you copy paste it into there.  I gather its tricky on a phone.  Easy on a computer though.  

Thank you for being helpful

Your welcome!  I'm sure Bacon will offer his thoughts, I just beat him to it!

In a correspondence game, you really need to hone your thought process so that you don't make mistakes as simple as ne4.  I believe Bacon might have something he can cut and paste for you on a proper thought process -- I know some helpful folks have that, not sure if Bacon is one of them.  Doing the whole kit-and-kaboodle when you have time will make it second nature so you can do it more quickly.  (This is why its better to do longer games when learning.)  It is not really that complicated though -- just look at everything both sides can do, including the checks and captures both sides can make.  

I took about a decade off from chess, but I am really loving getting back into it. My dad and I use to play a lot when I was young. But adulting kind of took away that free time.

 if you haven't already gotter figgered maybe this short video will help.

I play randomly, white or black. I hadnt actually tried picking one specialty. Is that a common practice? With friends we always flipped a coin. And then next game winner chose.

Aspasa thanks ill check it out! Its been bugging me not knowing how to do that.

Yes, as you get a little stronger, you learn sequences of moves called "openings".  Exactly how much stronger you would have to get for it to make sense is a matter of debate, but its clearly not a good use of time for you at present.  If you do want to study, we can recommend some strategy books, and of course practicing tactics here or elsewhere is very useful.  

What strategy books would you recommend ArtNJ?