my second game in 11 years

again, please tell me my strengths and weaknesses. i played white, thank you.

Opening was passive but you are a aggressive player take the space in the center but sacrifices so early isn't sound get your pieces out to attack.

Thank you. Out of curiosity what would you say my strengths are, if any

Hey taylor, I suggest you learn some basic opening plans so that you dont lose a knight and a bishop out of the opening as you did in this game. :) If black knew what he was doing, he would have taken the pieces you threw at him and then ran his king back to safety, and the position would be resignable for you. I suggest developing your knights, your bishops, and getting castled. Afterwards, you an consider your plan. Here are the 7 opening principles that my old coach told me:

1.Control the center (put your pieces on nice squares that control the center of the board)

2.Pawn in the center (play a pawn to either e4 or d4 as white, e5 or d5 as black to claim space in the center of the board)

3.Knights before bishops (not greatly important at your level, but generally bring your knights out to f3 and c3, and figure out where your bishops want to go depending on the position.

4.Don't make too many pawn moves (Focus on developing your pieces and getting castled; moving pawns alot wastes precious time)

5.Don't move your queen out too early (The queen is the most powerful piece, so bringing her out into the battle early on is dangerous because it can get captured or attaked)

6.Don't move the same piece twice (In general, only move each piece once at the beginning of the game. Moving the same piece multiple times wastes time)

7.Castle Early/King Safety (I would make it a goal of yours to always get castled in the first 5-8 moves. Your king is safer tucked away on the side of the board, and it also helps develop your rook)

I also suggest that you take some of the free chess mentor courses here as they will definitely help. 

As for some general advice, always be aware of your opponents possible threats and move options, as well as your own threats and move options. Early on, I think you should play some slower games (G15 10 for example) to give you more time to think about your options and make the right desicions. Once you get more comfortable with these principles and the game in general, you can move on to faster games (G5)

I hope I helped :)

-jposthuma

I agree with USCFDex again. Your strengths seem to be caution and in keeping your units cohesive in the opening so that they protect each other, and in being aggressive in attack, but that's an odd mixture: your passive/flexible Nf3 and overly cautious/defensive e3 didn't give you the space and position that are compatible with your aggressive attacking style.

Be careful of sacrifices like your 4. Bxf7+ and 5. Ne5+, which were mostly unsound, unless you have good reason to believe you will get sufficient positional compensation. You finally came very close to getting that positional compensation when you won the knight back and you were one move away from winning Black's queen with a pin but then you threw your chance away with 13. Rf2 instead of 13. Kh1. If 13. Kh1 c6, then you win Black's queen with 14. Rd1.

(Sorry for all my typos--I must be tired again today.)

That's fine, thank you for your critique