defense against kingside attacks

Most of my recent losses have resulted from making mistakes when my opponent launched a kingside attack. I posted an example below. I can find the mistakes when I review the games, but I'm hoping for some tips and general principles to avoid the mistakes in the first place. (I'm sure people can find many weaknesses, but the kingside attacks seem like the most glaring problem now.)

Well said by paulgottlieb. I will just say that after 11...Kg8 would certainly take Black, if I had a choice!

But this is just because white went without proper thinking for the (quite bad) 10.Bxh7+ sortie. Had white played "normal" moves like 10.Qc2, Qe2 or Be4, your position is simply very bad: You are lacking a lot of space, as well as any sort of active play.

Any new player should explicitly NOT SURRENDER the central squares to his opponent. You are still too inexperienced to try hypermodern stuff. Always answer 1.e4 with 1...e5, 1.d4 with 1...d5, develop and castle as soon as possible, and ALWAYS pick your moves in context to what your opponent has played.

Thanks to both of you for the very detailed and helpful comments. I'll go through them more carefully. Certainly, there are many weaknesses in my play, but handling kingside attacks is the most glaring one right now. That game wasn't a typical example of my problem, since my position was so bad even before the kingside attack. (I usually respond to d4 with d5, but I tried something different in that game, obviously without much success.) Also, I didn't see Bxh7+ coming. Here's a game where I think I was in good shape, saw the kingside attack coming, and then collapsed anyway:

I'd welcome comments on this particular game, but I'm also interested in generalities.

To respond to your specific questions, paulgottleib, I didn't see the bishop sacrifice coming. I don't remember my thought process, but when I was considering my opponent's counterplay, I probably neglected to think much about Bxh7 because my king was guarding that square. I also didn't see the recapture and mate on the open file. That's the sort of obvious mistake that I seem to make more often against kingside attacks than I do in other positions.

Whenever you say to yourself "he can't take here because that is guarded," you have stopped looking too soon. Go through the sequence in your head anyway. The same is true when capturing one of your opponent's pieces.

In my experience of low level games , when you lose e5 square to an enemies pawn, you need more pieces (Bg7 Nh7 Nf8 etc) on the kingside to prevent strong (usually gambit) attack to your king.

OK, lets try this one.

First mistake: you did not answer 1.e4 with 1...e5, as suggested. Don't do it again until you learn the basics. We will forgive you for a last time.

Second one: 7...e6. When old fox Lasker said "knights before bishops" he did not say it to be ignored by newbies: He said it because this is the right way to play open and semi- open games. In the case here, the naive 8.Qb5+ would be quite uncomfortable to meet, since you either have to sacrifice the b7 pawn for rather dubious compensation, or play the clumsy position after 8...Qd7 9.Ne5 Qxb5 10.Nxb5 Na6. Since the latter is just clumsy and not really bad, this is not so serious again.

8...Bb4: Again a bishop before the knight.  A lucky shot as well, since it drops a pawn to 9.Qb5+, but this isn't fatal at all: Black gets fine play for it following 9...Nc6 10.Qxb7 Bxc3+ 11.bc3 Rc8, or just 10...Rc8.

11...a6: OMG.

What did white play in his last move?

Whay did he play it? What he is threatening? What did he leave loose? How can I meet his threat?

If you ask the above questions, you can easily find out that his sole threat is Nc7+, picking up an exchange. There are two ways to meet it painlessly: 10...Rc8 (removing the rook from the fork and covering c7) and 10...0-0 (removing the king, and hoping for 11.Nc7? Rc8). Both are equally good.

He did not pick the exchange, and more than that he deliberately damaged badly his queenside pawn structure. You should be grateful to him. Actually around move 18 white is completely busted: the pawn on c3 is doomed (so no hurry to pick it up immediately), and the only thing you should care about is dealing with white's sole active piece, the e5 bishop. Easiest way: 18...Qg5, which keeps an eye on the bishop, defends g7 and a few kingside dark squares, and is threatening destroying further white's pawns using cheapos like 19...Nc5 20.dc5 Qxe5. This is very important: His queenside liabilities are PERMANENT, he can't repair them without your aid, so there is no need at all to hurry picking the pawns there. You should first, and foremost, suppress any sort of active counterplay white might have!

Black is still better after white's 23.Qe7, but now much care is required, as you have some serious weaknesses on the dark squares. The king had to go back to g8, since your 23...Qc8? effectively drops either a piece, or the king.

Thanks again for all of the comments--especially the general points about keeping the initiative and about permanent liabilities. I understand (at least to some extent) the concept of the initiative, but I think that I underestimate its importance when my king is under attack so that I settle for purely passive moves. Among the many errors that pfren noted, rushing to capture the queenside pawn is a typical type of error for me. (Fortunately, I don't as often make such blatantly obvious, cringe-inducing tactical blunders like overlooking the threat of Nc7+ and giving away the exchange.)