Me getting destroyed

Well, as you can see from the game, I'm barely a novice.  I love to play chess, but feel like I need some guidance to become a decent player.  Hopefully, someone can help me out.  Thanks a lot for your time and hope you at least get a laugh out of the game.

Hey, 

I have never posted like this, but I went through your game and had a couple of thoughts. 

I would have taken on 10, and created a semi open file to get my rook active. By the 12th move, you have pretty much given up the center. Move 15 is a blunder, which happens to us all.... just be careful with your queen when all the artillery is still on the board, and realize that if she can be targeted, she will. On move 22, I would not have given my opponent the option of trading down queens, as that helps to simplify his end game.  Also, I would have activated my white bishop after seeing his pawn structure. I am not sure if any of this helps, but feel free to ask anything specific. 

Cheers

I will point out some of the moves I think were bad on your part.

Your first 6 moves although not perfect were playable, and I will not critisize any of that, it is almost like a queens gambit setup but he did not play the queens gambit.

Move 7 for you: Bd6 is very weak, you have already moved that piece once before and by moving it a second time for no apparent reason you have given him a tempo, although this was not a fatal mistake it really slowed the rest of your game down. I don't like that square for your bishop, I would have gone with moving your pawn to b6 then putting your bishop on b7 making space for your undeveloped knight to go to d6

Move 8, you said this is where you think things fell apart for you, not really you could have still played on and been in ok shape you were not up against a GM who you needed to be brutally accurate against.

Move 9, c5 was playable perhaps a bit to soon, but it was for sure a move you could have played

Move 10, c4 was a bad idea this lost you a pawn and from here things went down hill.

Moves 11-13 you messed up on move 10 so you were gonna go down material you could have still fought for a draw at this point

Move 14, Nc6 is a blunder better would be Qc7 or moving the rook off of f8 you lost your rook

Move 17 is simply hanging a piece and from this point on it does not really matter what you do, you will lose unless your white makes a serious blunder

Why not learn the opening & defences first.  Choose 1 which you are comfortable with and start playing with it.  You will learn from trial and mistakes.  And the most important thing, look at the whole board & just not at a particular section & always have this question in your mind "why he did that move?  what is his motive?"  By doing that you will improve slowly but surely. 

Oh yeah try joining a groups which plays vote chess & are actively discussing it.  It helps to improve too.

Hey thanks for all the quick replies.  I'm still struggling with visualizing the algebraic notation, but I think all this material will definitely help move me in the right direction if I sit down and dedicate a little time to it.  I really appreciate the input though and will work on polishing up some of my opening and defence basics, and the vote chess sounds like a good way to get a lot of input, too.

Thanks again!

Well I suppose that you are defensively ok through move 4--it reminds me of a Caro-Kann type formation, except without the light squared Bishop developed (which is a weakness).

5. ... Be7 just wastes time and tempo, especially after you move it again two moves later. It should have come to d6 to start with.

8. ... Bd7 serves no purpose. Much better would have been Nd7, guarding e5 and eyeing an eventual c5 push.

10. ... c4 is just a pure blunder.

12. ... Qc7 allows the lost of the very strategic dark square Bishop, not a good thing.

14. ... Nc6 again, just blundering of material caused by not seeing the threats.

15. Qb8 not necessary to retreat that far--Qc7 would have sufficed.

17. Ne4 again, blundering material away due to board vision issues.

And the game is pretty much over by this point.

Your chief problem here is not knowledge or tactics or positional issues--your problem is your board vision! You cannot see threats well enough to keep yourself alive throughout an entire game. You just keep missing basic threats and losing more and more material, until you have lost all chance of recovery.

You need to do lots and lots of tactics training puzzles and piece mazes. Put a single pieces on the board, such as a Knight, pick a destination(s), and find the way to reach that destination(s) by moving it only in your head, without touching. And once you get good at that, start adding obstacles like pawns and do it over again).

Also work on playing real games without touching (or clicking) pieces at all--try your hardest to move the pieces completely in your head and visualize future positions as far forward as you can get.

Additionally, most higher level players will always do a basic 'sanity check' before submitting their moves, in order to avoid the kinds of blunders you made. The things that should go through you mind before submitting a move, in this order, are:

1. What checks does my opponent have after I make this move, and are any of them dangerous?

2. What pieces can my opponent take after I make this move, and are any of those takes dangerous?

3. What other tactical threats can my opponent make after I play this move, and would any of them worsen my position?

Follow this list before every move, and work on your board vision, and you will definitely see dramatic improvement in your play :)