If only I always played like this

Great game!

Thanks guys

I like to believe I played good in the opening and controlled the game to a certain extent with forced moves. The only real mistake my opponent made was not seeing the mate at the end.

Nice game, keep it in your collection of well played games. 

Your opponent made many real mistakes however.  

That's two people who have said my opponent made lots of mistakes. As far as I can see it his only two mistakes were the eighth move, bringing the knight in the centre d4 instead of continuing to develop the rest of his major pieces. And, not spoting the obvious mate at the end. If indeed there were more mistakes by my opponent, please highlight them, otherwise I feel as if your just trying to belittle how well I played by stating I won only from mistakes my opponent made.

You want to know the black mistakes ?

3...e5 (?) creates a weak d5 square for nothing.

4...h6 ? loses a tempo.

and 8...Nd4 ?? misses the following moves.

On your side, 8.Qe2 does not make much sense to me, from a general point of view, but especially when there is 8.Nxe4 ! and Black has lost a pawn because the bishop hangs and 8...Bxd1 ?? leads to Legal's mate after 9.Bxf7+ Ke7 10.Nd4#, but besides this your play was perfect to my eyes.

I hate when I feel that way about my play, but as I have gotten better and had to try to make heads or tails of either mine or my opponent's play, chess.com analysis makes it confusing sometimes to figure out who did what...

Some may have made the mistake of thinking this was the analysis forum instead of the Game Showcase forum.

Don't worry. A few of the slower ones did the same to me and many others I'm sure, too. 

Hey Trevor, it aint your fault if your oponent blunders. But it would definetly be your fault if you let the chances slip away. You had a chance at brilliancy and you succeeded. I say "keep it up kid!" and keep posting games like this. Aah! the good old-Morphy days is back!

I guess for me it would be difficult to see anyone showcasing games here unless they are GM's, IM's, FM's, etc. I think most people would be taking credit for great play when their opponent just wasn't playing so well.

That is why I would generally always put mine in the analysis forum, unless I beat a much higher rated player.

You brutally punish your opponent for his substandard development. Well done.:D

Nice Job! 

I agree, missing the mate was only one mistake. The most structural error was creating a weakness on d5, and ignoring it the entire game. What you did well is using that weakness to your advantage. Black should and could have at least played Nf6 somewhere

No.  3. ... e5 was not a mistake.  It sacrifices control of d5 for d4.  The move is recommended in Starting Out: The Sveshnikov.

I do remember the move 3..e5 in a line of opening, but black needs a good reason giving up control of d5. Ignoring the weakness it left there was the biggest mistake by black in my opinion.
I do see black attempting to gain d4, but don't you think d4 (in general) is more easily met by white's c3, where there are no pawns left for black to solve the d4 problem? Maybe it's just personal taste whether 3..e5 is a good choice, but doing nothing about the d4 weakness was fatal for black

Well, yes.  Black should have probably placed his Bishop on e6 and his Knight on f6, the opening wasn't bad, it was how he played it.

Don't expect to play a perfect game. You played a very nice game in general. For you to play such a nice game--your opponent had to make at least one mistake.  Your opponent made more than 2 mistakes but in a chess game there are usually several mistakes by both sides.

Be satisfied with playing such a very nice game but understand even GMs may not play a perfect game.

Some nice comments there, thank you. Also some positive criticism in the last few comments, again thank you.

That's very fair, but sometimes there are games I play that I just think were fun or exciting for one reason or another, not necessarily well-played. Like comeback victories, for example, or a well-executed mating sequence, or even a badly played game if you want to post it for comedic effect.

With most of the games I post in this forum I know generally what my mistakes were (almost always fairly obvious blunders) but decide to post the game anyway, just because occasionally it IS nice to get a pat on the back for a nice win, or to see if other people think your game was as as interesting as you thought it was.