We need more amateurs to post their annotated games.

a game I played today too

Just finished this game, and am reasonably pleased with it. Where do you think I could have improved?

OK here is a game I played over the board recently.  I am black.  Suggestions are welcome. 

For D Blower in #704:

On move 3, white could have played cxd5, and then if Nxd5 4. e4 and a big pawn center and your Knight on the run. If you take with the Q, he plays Nc3 first and then probably follows up with e4: huge space advantage and your pieces scampering.

From now on, if you play 1. d4 d5 2. c4, your response is e6 or c6 or dxc4 please.

Fortunately, your opponent doesn't seem interested in playing actively. (e3 & a3 are passive, defensive moves, but there is nothing to defend!) Nc3, Bg5 and Nf3 before shutting down the center (and worrying about nothing on the Q-side) would have been more active. 

6...Bd6 is probably not the best. If in doubt, play the B to e7 to prepare 0-0 and keep it safe from pawn forks...which your opponent missed by 0-0 before playing e4. (Is he afraid of playing e4???) Look at the position with e4 instead of 0-0. What do you do then?!

9. d5: he pushes the wrong pawn.

Why play 12...Bxf3? Why not back off and either force him to ruin his K-side pawns with g4 or after Bxc6 and bxc6, he wrecks your Q-side pawns, but loses the B-pair on what is now an open board.

A bunch of sensible moves until 27 ... b5. Why do that? You're "fixing" the pawns on the color of his Bishop, making them permanent targets. And the poor c-pawn is stuck backwards on a semi-open file.

Instead of 31. Rd6+ he could have played Rd4 and picked off the pawn. It's undefendable.

Instead of 33. Ke2, e4 would have kept your King at bay maybe, but the pawn play on the K-side is pretty flexible still. Taking off the Rooks was a mistake. You should only do that if you see a clear outcome. K+P endgames are usually just a matter of counting.

34...f5 was good for stopping all K-side Pawn mayhem. His backward e-pawn is now stuck that way. The follow-up h4 is good too for keeping all his stuff backwards.

The pawn-hunt ending in Qs was a nail-biter, but the draw was probably legitimate.

I don't think 3. h3 is a blunder as it prevents 3... Bg4

Thanks for the feedback on my game.  It was the 2nd time I had played a league match over the board, so quite pleased. 

well, I think it IS a blunder as it falls prey to my "threat" and he's thinking to stop Bg4 immidiately, when it could be stop by h3 later, do Nf3 or Be2, then if I play Bg4, he could play h3.

New game that I played today. I'm really pleased with how this one went. 

i composed a big message but somehow it disappeared. i think black was winning until he lost his mind last few moves. i will post comments later on. gtg now..

#709: when your opponent doesn't challenge the center after 1. e4 (moves like d6 or g6 or b6 or e6) play 2. d4 and grab the whole thing. Make Black contest you for center control. Also it gives you an instant space advantage for your pieces to run around in.

This game had a bit of almost everything. Still White managed to play it better. It was interesting to see it

nice game from #713, I think your opponent is dominating, and I was confused of why didn't he take rook with knight ? after Nxe3 Rxe3 Bd5, I do not see white can win this one, because you are ahead in material, and space-wise, you are quite lost.

But good game though 

REGARDS

bizarre play by black in game end to drak v faustocoppi

I am not much good in chess; but I think taking the bishop at the 19th move would have been better.

Another expert scalp, but I think I won because he made mistake too, I saw there are some places white could gained a clear advantage, but maybe because of time pressure, white blundered and lost.

#709 about your questioning on trading a Queen for 2 Rocks. the idea behind that trade is that the value of a queen is 9 points, and the value of a rock is 5, so 2 rocks worth more than a queen. And in endgames you can pretty much veryfy this, when you can align them together. Also consider that 2 rock alone can do a mate but a queen alone can't.

So consider that maybe it is no as bad a deal to trade a queen for 2 rocks.

Rooks not rocks

It depends on the pieces' evaluation. In different positions the same kind of piece has different values, as a piece's evaluation is based on its mobility, and its mobility is dependent on its placement and on other pieces' and pawns' placement. If you have no open file, you may consider a queen to be even more valuable than two rooks.

The mobility superiority is also the reason that a queen can usually draw against two rooks in an endgame.