Post your game for expert analysis

Hi granitoman, you could have won. You missed an instantly winning move. Don't let heister find it now you know there is one. :-)

Really? mm, i'll try to find it, but atm i can't see it.

Thanks for the analysis heister!

This was a casual game played against a USCF expert an hour per side.  We moved pretty fast though.  I'm attaching a game with my annotations to explain what I was thinking.

Granitoman - Thanks for submitting the game.  This is one of my favorite openings from both white and black's side.

@Thanks Heister and all guys who pointed Qxf4, i still can't believe i wasn't able to see that pin, still banging my head against the wall :(.

Quite impressive to bang your head against the wall and typing at the same time.

BTW, your opponent did not see it either.

Three days per move. I'm still picking up some openings and such, but I think I'm making progress from when I started here. Made a few unorthodox moves, I reckon, not sure if they were best or not.

Heister, they are?!  Even moreso than endgames with knights?  I'll agree that they have the potential to be very complicated but rook and queen endgames with the right number of pawns (more than four but fewer than eight pawns per side) make things much easier as the kings have better shelter from checks and more pawns = more potential targets and therefore clear goals usually. 

@ TheGreatOogieBoogie - Opinions are abundant :).  In my opinion, the potential resources expand beyond other endings:  Including fortressing, Q v 2R and Q v 1R endings.  Even at the end of the rope you get into the QvP and RvP ending resources.  One could win a whole rook and still lose the game if a couple of pawns have expanded to the 6th rank.  That is a lot to think about!

Just a few things for you to try out: Try mating with kQ v kR.  Try queening a pawn with Q V QP.  These are both potential endgames that might come up from RRQ v RRQ.

True =) Even with eight pawns per side it can be straightforward but if everything is permanently locked it's a dead draw, even when only one side has a queen =)

kQ v kR was a fun exercise, put the queen on the same square as the rook and eventually fork king and rook, or if the king moves to the wrong square checkmate.  Though some of those mates can be tough I was thinking of a very basic and straightforward one with white king on c6, queen on d8, black king on a7, rook on b7.  The past couple of months I went through Fine's Basic Chess Endgames, and paid special attention to rook endgames and the queen endgame section had some tough wins.  I should go through it again until I can I automate everything then move up to ECEs.  I get into queen and rook endgames a lot so I should pay special attention to that section.  I'm typically reluctant to trade queens unless I'm way ahead and want to kill potential counterplay or their queen is a large part of their advantage, or I get two rooks or four minor pieces out of the deal (practically never have the opportunity in the case of four minors).  Though two rooks don't always beat a queen as a game of BTB I looked at elsewhere proves. 

@ TheGreatOogieBoogie - I had a game as black in the same structure that went for almost 200 moves before we agreed to a draw.  The chessmaster I was playing ashamedly admitted that he only played on because he thought I would make a mistake.  We tore up all the score sheets but kept page 1.

Here is a game where I messed up, but managed to pull off a win in the end all the same. :D But we can learn from wins as well, and constructive criticism is welcome.

Thanks for analysing my game, I understood everything you said :)

@NFX - Thanks for submitting the game!  If you allow me, I'd like to use your game as an example of the power of gaining space with the pawns.  Let me know if I can do that!  Regards.

Here is a game I played recently against another junior player. 

I am confident that my sacrifice was sound but I would like to know if I could have made any major improvements. Although I could just plug it into the computer, I don't think there's any substitute for the advice of a strong player. Also, I would like to know what you think of my and my opponent's opening play. 

I'd be happy to let you use my game as an example if you want to, heister. =) Everyone helps everyone else, or some such idea. I guess I was just too busy on the kingside to worry about the b3 pawn.

@ RRM888 I'd be happy to look through your game.  I should get to it over the weekend.  In the mean time, check 15. Rxh7 as an in-between move that makes your e6 idea a little stronger.  I think it might make this mini a little minnier.  I thought sure that's where you were going with that sac.

@ chesswiz - We hear about rook activity a lot.  Your game illustrates it from both sides.  The player with the passive rooks loses stuff on both sides!  Very instructive.

@RMM Thanks for submitting the game.  I had a move order thought on move 9 you might consider.  However, I'd be surprised if you ever found an opponent that would play the critical line so it probably doesn't matter.