Ugh! Help Please!

I just played this game on Live Chess and Im extremely frustrated on how easy I got beat. Im by no means a skilled chess player, but this one hurt. My problem is I always feel like Im on defense even if Im white! Where did I go wrong in this match? Were there any opportunities here where I couldve attacked hard but didnt? Any help is appreciated!

if you look closly,he was setting you up at 8...nc4, then continuing with 10...qb6, then making a powerful battery.wht you didnt see was the checkmate, that was made up of another discoverd attack.you couldve played 6.bd2 instead of 6.c3 which may look stronger, but i think bd2 is safer.also watch out for those discovered attacks

Should have played 8.dxc4.  You're attacking way too soon. Develop your pieces so you have more to defend and attack with.

6. Bd2 develops a piece and develops Q if he goes BxB and then Q attacks N.

or 5.Bd2 as your move 5 was always going to get a pawn moved against KB.

Well, generally, I think you're letting the opponent play with you, instead of against you.

You seem to have the approach of the victory will just come of its own accord if you play normally, and you let your opponent get away with murder. When he gets away with it time and again, in the end he starts having the threats... then if he thinks it through and doesn't let you get away with letting him get away, he wins:) 

Sadly, it happens to a lot of players below the ~1500 area, because sometimes, it works against these players. However, you will also have many horrible losses until that changes. When it does, you'll witness a great increase in your ability.

Winning a Chess game takes a lot of blood sweat and tears most of the time, and it gets more so as you get stronger, not less so, since you face stronger oppositiojn.

Case in point:

your good move of 4.d5: good move, sure, and I wouldn't want to be black right after that opening. But, it doesn't try to punish the weird ...f6 by black, which simultaneously opened the dangerous short diagonal to the king and prevented the knight from defending it by blocking f6.

if you open it all up: 4.dxe5, black is in trouble:

if he plays 4...fxe5, trying to keep everything closed in the center, you play 5.Bc4, and you have even better piece control of the center than in the game, and black will take forever to castle, he can never play d5 (not in the near future anyway), and the worst thing is that after 5...Nf6 6.Ng5 is pretty much impossible to parry without material losses.

If he tries to ease up the pressure by exchanging pieces, you get free access to h5: 4...Nxe5 5.Nxe5 fxe5 6.Qh5+ oops:) (and 5...Qe7 Nd3 leaves you a piece up).

After your move he can simply play 4...Nce7 and ...Ng6 later and block his weaknesses, and perhaps defend successfully.

That's one case in point, another one:

5.Bb5: what is the bishop doing there? I see no purpose for it on that square in this position. Developing the pieces doesn't mean just bringing them out, it means bringing them out to good squares where you know what their doing.

Lucky you, black decides to play a bad move, and your position should change from good to winning:

5...Bb4 5.c3 GOOD Bd6 6.0-0 - once again, failure to punish , another missed opportunity to get a win - 6.b4 wins a piece, as the poor black knight has no squares (remember - "A knight on the rim is grim"?)

Black continues to ignore his hanging pieces and the opportunity to win a piece returns by move 10.

10.b3, wins either the knight, or the bishop after the knight moves.

That opportunity remains in place in moves 11, 12 (yes, b3 wins even after the bishop moves to c5 becasue if the knight moves to d6 he blocks the bisho pand b4 wins it, and if it moves to a5, b4 forks bishop and knight.

instead 12.Be3 gives black the chance to seize a positional advantage. After the sequence ends in 13...Nxe3, black has a big advantage. Although you could have avoided mate, a lot of damage has been done.

If you see the discovered threats, you could play 14.Qf2, but after 14...Nc4  black has just won a pawn and is already starting to place his pieces on good squares.

So, you missed many chances to get a much better or winning position, black just had one chance, and he grabbed it. I suggest training with simple tcatical motifs and trying to think about the first moves when you're in unfamiliar territory. many easy wins are to be found that way, and many hard defeats shall be avoided:)

hope it wasn't too long.

heh Since the move you're suggesting is not legal for either player at move 8, I suppose you meant something else:)

Yeah, dxc6. Whoops. :)

Well, yeah, 8.dxc6 is better than what was played, but I would prefer 8.Be2. white has a large edge still, my idea would be though, that black doesn't want to take 8...cxd5 immediately because 9.Nh4 creates a load of threats with one move.

white's position is probably winning if black takes, and if not...I like it better than dxc6...that's all. dxc6 reaches nice positions too.

Ba4 was an inaccuracy, it seems.

Yep. I agree with you. I would have probably played 8.dxc6 and then 9. Be2. 8.Be2 is a good move as well. 

Thanks for all the insight everyone. Im going to go over the game while going over this thread tonight.