Not good enough

Although my game has advanced considerably since I joined this site, I still feel there are shortcomings in my game. For example, here I had a raging pawn storm but saw it wet blanketed. Couple of mistakes later, I managed to pull out a win, but I'm not at all pleased with it:

Neznam stari sta da ti kazem.Odigrao si odlicno.Takticki i tehnicki odlicno.Meni se potez 29.Qd2? bas i ne svidja,bolji potez je 29.Nd3!? taj potez izjednacava igru ali ti onda imas potez 29...Bb5! Pametno bi bilo dat lovca za skakaca zbog upada skakaca na polje e5,ali na uzimanje Bxd3 ja bih uzeo cxd3! otvorit c-liniju i da imam kontrolu nad poljem e4 i da mi ne mozes tu upast sa topom.

31.Rf2? je greska bezveze veze figuru i top postaje puno slabiji a obrana klimava.Bolji potez definitivno je 31.Kh1  

U  poziciji nakon poteza 28...Rhe8 bijeli skakac je trebao odradit veliku ulogu u obrani ali on je ostao svo vrijeme na b4.

Dalmatinac,

29. Ne3 je ilegalan, mislis na 29.Nd3 mozda?

Ma problem je to da kad krenem na kralja s pijunima, on bi na kraju trebo ostat izlozen, ovdje to bas i nije slucaj. Mislim da sam tu negdje zajebo.

31. Kh1 i meni izgleda bolje, nakon toga sam razmisljo o a5 da maknem skakaca, pa onda sa d4 i d3 otvorit dijagonale.

26.f3! je odlican obrambeni potez.Tvoja dva pjesaka nisu dovoljna za uspjesan napad,tvoj zaostao pjesak f5 bi jako dobro posluzio ali sa potezom f4 on ti je definitivno zablokirao poziciji i uspjesno se obranio od nekog zestokog napada.U postu 4 mozda je rijesenje kako unaprijediti poziciju.Nemoj zaboravit analizirat to.

Sretno 

I rather thought you tore him up.  That game's a gem.

5. ... Ne5 - A fat poke in the eye!  The look on White's face would have been a Kodak moment.

13. ... Nd5 - the N is on the right spot. 

15. Qd3 - How many times is his Q getting tempo-ed!

21. Qd1 - The Q has been tempo-ed 3 more times in 6 moves and is back on her starting square.

24. ... Qd4 - He got rid of his B and tempoed your Q, driving it to a square where it hits his K-side pawns and also the offending unprotected knight.

27. ... h3 - I might have considered g3 instead so if he bypasses it you control 2 squares adjacent to his K.  As it is he made a funnel that pointed to his K.  I don't think there's a way for you to bust his pawns up without some additional threats.  You could, probably, had he advanced any of his pawns.  But he was solid.

30. ... Qxc5+ - This is probably the fatal move.  31. Rf2 is unpalatable but your B will draw some blood after a5 kicks the N.

31. ... Bb5!! - ow ow ow

32. Re1?  Collapse.  That B needs to be shut down.  32. Nd3 does it at the cost of Black's Q getting into the Q-side pawns.  Probably still fatal but in the end game instead of immediately.  32. c4 dxc4 33. Qc2 takes advantage of white's unprotected Q.  This probably gives Black a bucket of tactics but things are grim.

 Ne, nasao sam di je greska. 25... h4 je los, g3!! je dobitni potez. fxg3 f5 i gotovo.

I think I found the fatal mistake in the storm: 25... h4? 25... g3!! fxg3 f5 and white is looking bad.

This is a marvelous game.

I looked at it again and gain, trying to find serious errors... Only a few small remarks for either side, but from the moment you equalized (nice going with Ne5 btw), through the process where you gained control of the game, continued with the pawn storm, gained tremendous space on the kingside, and finally won,

I can find no serious flaw in your game. This time you're being too critical of yourself.

In fact, 25...h4 may be the best move in the position, while your suggestion, 25...g3, should be marked as 25...g3? (not !!), and at the end of your suggested line: fxg3 f5 (which is probably a further mistake), you've made your d7 bishop the worst piece you could, putting another pawn on its color, in addition to giving up a pawn, you have a piece that cannot eaily join the attack now.

Black also did not really get anything going for the pawn, while all white has to do is pick his favorite blockading method (Rf4 or Qd2), wait for the right moment to play Nd3-e5, and black's position is awful.

 ...h4 or ...f4 aren't really a threat (even after Qd2, if black plays ...h4 gxh4, black shouldn't have even close to enough compensation for the pawn. Though Rf4 immediately gets rid of this issue, if white is afraid of this (I have my reasons to prefer Qd2, but I think both options are equally valid).

Now, why don't you like the position after what you have played?

blakc has a HUGE positional advantage. Truly amazing. I'm not even sure white has a way of holding anymore against correct play (though he may be able to, not sure. It's just a terrible position). Other than a few techincal notes of moves I think are slightly better from a technical perspective, you played excellently.

White played a terrible blunder (32.Re1? collapses), but you know what, it's very hard not to make mistakes here.

You can be REALLY proud of this game of yours. What your comments on it show though, is that place too much emphasis on attack. Hard to improve with tunnel vision approach (if attack doesn't work, I've got nothing).

Your comment on move 28, stating about you playing for a draw, seem to indicate you did not realize you had a splendid position.

You have more space, a safer king, A bishop, which would exchange itself for the white knight should the latter dare to try Nb4-d3-e5, temporary contorl over the e file (which should become permanent, if black wishes), more active pieces in general... Even the isolated queen pawn, which would be black's only problem here cannot really be attacked effectively (because black is more active and white has problems with king safety).

Although this is an opposite side castling situation, since white did not prepare any attack of his own, and because black has a more active position, attack is not the most important thing, only one of the important ideas.

 The other important thing is to understand the folly of your ...g3 and ...f5 idea, and ot appreciate the power of white's blockade there (and the effect it has on black's bishop).

GREAT game. Really. One of the finest I've seen in this forum so far. Well done!

Now, why don't you like the position after what you have played?

Because I saw the position after ~28 moves quite differently:

White king was exposed towards the centre, which I didn't have control of, the kingside was locked and my space advantege there was thus insignificant and I was expecting an attack coming on the queenside.

A move or two later, I noticed a line that might take control of the centre, starting at c5 that did the trick, helped by what I see was a mistake from white (dxc5). I didn't even percieve a win until white played Rf2.

Problem with my play is that attack is actually the only thing I know how to do. I don't even understand positional play, and my defence still loses to blunders.

Incidentally, this was only the second time ever that I tried a pawn storm.

"I didn't even percieve a win until white played Rf2."

That's ok, because before that move you were looking at losing a long engame due to your IQP.  Rf2 was a doozy of a blunder and you pounced.

"Problem with my play is that attack is actually the only thing I know how to do."

That's a darn fine start! 

"I don't even understand positional play,"

 You probably do more than you realize.  Do you seek to give your opponent doubled pawns? Move your rooks to open or half-open files? Stick your pieces on squares controller by your pawns? Look for moves that remove your opponents options? Pile up on backward pawns?

"...and my defence still loses to blunders."

If that ever stops happening, find better opponents. A blunder is a relative thing and is a consequence of playing challenging opponents.

Not really.

Even without Rf2, black is just much better, not worse. he has enough to more than compensate for the Isolated pawn.  

Actually, white is close to losing, and has to play very accurately. Anyone wants to defend white's position after Qf2 (instead of Rf2) d4 , or after Kh1 d4

?

It's even misleading if you worry only about static features of a position (such as pawn weaknesses), and don't pay attention to more dynamic features. After all, white gets the textbook blockading move with Nd3 after that.

But, black's control (or threat to control) of the a8-h1 diagonal will keep white's pieces tied to the defense (those black kingside pawns are really something...).

The isolated pawn may actually turn out to help black , if white goes too far and places his knight on e5, he will eventually have to trade it for black's bishop when it comes to c6. The black queen will take its place. Then, white's lack of ability to leave g2 with the queen ives black the extra possibility of ...d3 and if cxd3 Rxd3  (even if the queen is on d2 and guards d3).

Before the isolated pawn's weakness becomes the dominating feature of the position, there are too many other factors, and they all favor black.