Just a few quick tips:
3.. Nf6? ... d5 is a much better alternative if you want to play for a win.
7... I would have played ... e6.
10... B:f3? Play Bh5 and Nbd7. Why voluntary give up your bishop?
12... a6? Waste of time. what's the purpose??
17... N:c3? Rad8!
After that you just have excahnged the pieces and agreed to a draw. Overall the game is C- mainly for the lack of even a tiny attempt to gain initiative and try to win.
Yeah, on Bxf3, I was kind of on auto-pilot during that move. I am used to trading off that bishop to get rid of the defensive knight on f3. Against some opponents, that does some damage, but not against this guy. To be honest, I don't really remember why I played 12... a6, but I'm sure there were better moves. And on the lack of effort, I usually like to trade down pieces and get to endgames quickly, seeing as how that is the part of the game that I am best in, but in this game, I got a little too overzealous with the piece-trading. I think that I can attribute that to the fact that my "wow I might actually not lose to someone 300 points higher than me" reflex took over, and that part of me kind of wanted the draw. The problem is that I tend to put a lot of weight on a player's rating and I sometimes let that have a lot of influence on my gameplay. That is something that I am going to work on in the future. Thanks for the feedback and suggestions. Hopefully, I will be able to post better quality games than this in the future.
First of all please don't take my comments personally. :). I rarely make comments on someone games and if i do, I only try to help person to improve. But you nailed down exaclty, the problem in this game and I am sure in others is that you play to passive. Chess is a lot like boxing. You can either be in a defense the whole match hoping that judges will award you a draw or you can try to knock your opponent out even if he is bigger and stronger. Knock them out, if there is an opportunity to gain initiative, take it. Don't trade off pieces
A while ago, I played a 45-minute game online that ended in a draw. I was playing Black and my rating before the game was 1429, while my opponent, playing White, was rated 1777. So, naturally, I was pretty happy with myself after my opponent accepted my draw offer after move 28. I played my pet variation of the Scandinavian Defense (or at least something similar to it). I feel like I could have kept going, but it looked like it wouldn't have gone anywhere with decent accurate play on both sides. But, I feel like, after going over the game a couple of times, that I am missing something in my analysis. So, I am posting it here. Comments, thoughts, feedback about the game are welcome.