Where did I lose?

Somewhat novice, so i need some help (and please explain in novice terms, I know what Bxe3 means, but I have no idea what king's Indian is lol).

I felt i did fairly well, and lost it in the endgame, can someone with more knowledge help me out?

Thanks for the help :D

Move 13 is obviously where you began losing.  Had you traded bishops before taking the pawn you would've been fine (though, 13. Bxe6 is followed by 13...Rxe6 thus protecting the pawn on D6).  Afterwards, you began trading pieces.  A general rule in chess is that when you are down pieces or down the exchange (meaning that they have a rook while you have a bishop or another mismatch of that sort) you DO NOT trade pieces.  If you are up, then you do trade pieces (furiously lol) in hopes of simplifying material.  On move 17 (Rd8+) you began trading -- not good.  You kept trading in other moves, such as 26. Rf1.  Move 21. Nxe4 was forced, I suppose, not your fault -- though instead of 20. Rd6 you should've maybe played Rd4 -- protecting your pawn and attacking his bishop.

Otherwise, you played a nice opening.  I noticed you like to trade pieces a lot, early on.  Nothing wrong with that, though I might suggest being a bit more patient and attacking the King while controlling the center instead of trading everything.  You went into the 4 Knights Variation a bit awkwardly though -- usually 2. Nf3 comes before Nc3 (nothing is attacking your pawn yet).  You should try another opening called the Ruy Lopez or the Spanish.  It goes:

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5....and it can go on into several variations from there, although 3...a6 is common.

Sorry for the lengthy response, hope I helped :)

I agree with LisaV in that 11. f4 and 16. g3 weren't very good choices, as the f,g, and h-pawns are needed to shield your king when you castle kingside (until you trade down into an endgame).

On move 13, Queen for queen is not a sacrifice but an exchange. 21. Nxe4 is also not a sacrifice but an exchange of knights.

However, 13. Qxd6? did lose bishop for pawn. On top of that, 20. Rd6 dropped the e-pawn, and you left your pawns pretty much hanging after move 23.

I definitely don't like 26. Rf1. Your rook was the last piece that could really prevent your opponent from promoting pawns. Trading it off, especially when you're down a bishop and two pawns, made pawn promotion and a win for your opponent almost certain.

Also, by the time your king moved (aside from castling), you were already lost. Kings are very important in the endgame, and should not be staying put. I didn't see your king moving around much until move 33, which was at least 10 moves later than it should have been.

6... Bxd4. winning the knight.

Thanks for the help guys, as i read suggestions, i am going over it, and i see a lot of the mistakes you are pointing out.

You were ahead a pawn for a moment, but then he muched up your pawns and the rook trade wasn't your best idea.

I thought you played a pretty good game:

1. At the end of opening make sure you are either on equal peieces or pieces up.

2. You need a strong position from the opening to set you up nicely for the res of the game. I find that queen's gambit is strong and it well worth looking at on game explorer.

3. Make sure your pawns are protected in the endgame

hope this helps

After Be3 Black plays Ne6 keeping the piece up (Bxe6 Bxe3 Bxf7+ wins only a pawn for the piece). And after c6, you hadn't to take d6 but take care to defend your Bc4. After, the game is over.

ah... two things:

a.) Being down a piece (rook, bishop, knight) usually leads to a lost game. Black successfully converted his extra piece advantage. long story short, it was when he was permanently up by a bishop.

b.) An endgame where one player has a piece (in the game it was the bishop) with pawns vs. only pawns it is very easy to win for the player with the piece (assuming the both players have roughly the same number of pawns.) The one piece, be it a rook, bishop, or knight, can zip across the board while the opponent's pawn can hardly do a single thing about it. Basically, I'm saying that you helped him greatly by exchanging your last piece on your 26th move.

Nimzo33 wrote:

ah... two things:

a.) Being down a piece (rook, bishop, knight) usually leads to a lost game. Black successfully converted his extra piece advantage. long story short, it was when he was permanently up by a bishop.

b.) An endgame where one player has a piece (in the game it was the bishop) with pawns vs. only pawns it is very easy to win for the player with the piece (assuming the both players have roughly the same number of pawns.) The one piece, be it a rook, bishop, or knight, can zip across the board while the opponent's pawn can hardly do a single thing about it. Basically, I'm saying that you helped him greatly by exchanging your last piece on your 26th move.

Nimzo33 explains in more detail why 26. Rf1 is bad. It's definitely worth noting if you see a similar situation (whether or not you are the losing side).

If wanted to play d4, you should have played 4d4 which is a line of the scotch, very solid, but not very ambitious. You have very little compensation for pawn after 5.d4, because of Nc3. To make this sort of sac work need to follow up with c3. Sorry to say, but the peice sac 6Nxd4 was plain barmy. You have no compensation at all with either peice capture. (Well with 6...Nxd4 7e5 you get some development, but it is nowhere near enough).

In chess mags and books will see lots of games with clever sacs because these games are entertaining. In general though the bigger army will win.It will take a bit of practise and study to judge correctly when have compensation.