Unclear Thinking

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Avatar of MarshallScott

I really felt like I didn't have a plan most of this game.  I had some vague ideas that I noted in the pgn, but nothing concrete, and very imprecise with my calculation. I looked it over and gave my thoughts.

Some places, the mistakes are clear, but in others I am hoping some more skilled players might see something that I missed. Thanks for looking! I appreciate any comments.
Avatar of GTchbe

I don't have too much to say about the game, but here are a few points I made:

-  Why not 2. d4?

-  Why not 3. d4?

-  4. Bg5 loses to Qxb2

-  c3 seems like a better square for the knight to me than d2

-  If you wanted to trade dark square bishops, it may have been better for you to take his bishop - sure, you are able to recapture with the knight attacking his queen, but then you have a knight on the edge of the board not doing much, and if he attacks it when he moves his queen, which he did, you have to move it right back, or defend it, so it doesn't really gain time.

-  Even if the knight were not hanging, Qf3 just doesn't seem like that great of a move.  f3 is probably better for a knight, and you still need to develop your light-square bishop and castle

-  Attempting to open the center when his king was in the middle of the board was probably a good idea, though not at the cost of trading down material, and black can also respond with e5, which is just good for him.

-  Even though you think your knight might have a nice square on f5, you have to realize that in this position it is easily kicked away.

-  I don't see any real purpose for 18. Rd4 or 22. b3

-  The game seems completely lost after 23. h5, so I won't really comment on anything after that.

-  In general, you should not trade down when you are down material

-  Your opponent's opening was not very good at all and you could have come out with an even bigger advantage than you did by getting much larger lead in development and taking full control of the center with moves like d4, Nf3, Nc3, etc.