Post your games here :)
Find where White threw away the win here and had to settle for a draw. I got outplayed in the middlegame, missing a Knight check but had a winning endgame until a critical blunder.
The last 30 moves show why counting pawn moves is so critical as a slight misstep from White and the game is a loss.
Honestly the entire opening was fine. 17. d5 was a bad move after a sequence of moves that went bxe5, dxc4, qxf6, qxf6, bxf6, g6, bxd8. Now it seems like a long complicated sequence but you need to always look ahead and calculate into the future. Obviously you may miss many of these longer sequences but you need to make calculation a habit. 21. bc5 just straight up gave away the queen which can be fixed by always double-checking the board before every move.
I think I played pretty well for having to play a 2000, and he was nice enough to point out some stuff, but I cant exactly tell where the wheels fell off. I could feel my position slowly tightening until I lost, but besides the pawn hang, I can't tell exactly what positionally or tactically I messed up. Keep in mind, I am not good at analysing my games, so it may be obvious but I just miss it. Any insights would be appreciated!
You started the game off alright but then came 9. bxb5 which simply didn't accomplish anything. These sort of 1 move blunders are a lack of focus not skill. Just make sure to pay attention to the board before every move. The same goes for 12. d4, 20. nd6+(a miss), 23. re1(missed mate in 1). Trust me when I tell you that anybody can easily get to 500 elo as long as they just diminish these 1 move mistakes.
ok but i dont see a 9. bxb5