For the opening, when you play the queen c2 nimzo, you don't usually want to play a3 unless you're capturing with the queen and keeping your pawn structure in tact. If you must recapture with b2 after your opponent plays Bxc3+, all a3 does is provoke your opponent to play a capture they were already going to, make while further weakens your own pawn structure, all at the cost of your own move. Essentially you're helping your opponent for free. Not a huge deal in this game here, just a tip in general.
11. f4 is definitely the wrong idea here. Better would be to play cxd5 then 0-0 or 0-0 right away and then make use of the awkwardly placed queen on g5 with moves such as e4 where you can liberate your darksquare bishop on c1 and gain a tempo on the queen. Instead, when you play f4, you further shut down your c1 bishop and make more holes in your position. While f4 looks like a move thats advancing your pawns with tempo, it serves little purpose and just helps back reposition his silly g5 queen.
14. cxd5 misses the mark a bit since the black bishop on c8 is a problem piece, you playing cxd5 liberates his worse piece at the cost of your own move, once again helping your opponent develop. Better would be to maintain tension in the center with slow improvement moves like Rb1 or break with e4 where you can maintain full central control and keep black's bishop bad on c8. (the engine suggests f5 immediately but I think that's too deep and difficult an idea to understand at this level.)
After 14. cxd5 exd5 the move f5 becomes more obvious. c4 doesn't help activate your pieces. White would love to play f5 and open his rook and start chipping away at the black king's defenses. c4 doesn't create any immediate problems and allows black to develop his bishop to f5 to stop your ability to activate your pieces down the f file. if 15. c4 Bf5 16. Bxf5 Qxf5 17. Qxf5 gxf5 18. cxd5 Ne7 black will regain the the pawn and white is left with a backwards pawn on e3 and a c1 bishop that is staring at his own pawns.
17. cxd5 Bxd5 e4! would have been possible or 17. cxd5 Qxd5 only then f5 where it's now more potent
19. f6 refusing a free pawn via cxd5 was a little confusing. if black responds with Bf5, simply Rxf5 nets white a bishop pair for a rook in a much better position.
again on move 23 the idea of cxd5 followed by e4 comes to light. White must just calculate the response Nxd4 but simply Qd3 double attacks both pieces.
24. h4 is a really strange move since you essentially allowed black to open the king side (which is also of use to hive via Kh8, blacks king remains safer here) while voluntarily destroying the glue that was holding down your kingside, the h2 pawn. If black simply responds gxh4, white is in a lot of trouble
Unsure of what the idea of 28. d5?! was. It seems to just sacrifice your entire center just for the hope of exploiting g5, but black can at any time play queen or rook xc5 and white will never be able to use the g5 square to get his pieces in.
32. Qd2? is the right idea of getting your queen to the kingside, but Qc1 does it without offering a queen trade. You've already destroyed your pawn structure so you're relying on dynamic play and attacks to keep you in the game. Trading queens will just net you a worse off endgame. Luckily your opponent declines the trade
34. Rh2 just threatens the queen for the fun of it. 34. Re5! would allow you to exploit the g5 square. 35. Kh1?? blunders the game to Rxc5 followed by Bd5 winning material. Instead your opponent played Rd8 blundering mate in 2.
A rough game, but one with many learning moments. If you take advantage of all these little moments, you'll be able to put away your opponent's much quicker
For the opening, when you play the queen c2 nimzo, you don't usually want to play a3 unless you're capturing with the queen and keeping your pawn structure in tact. If you must recapture with b2 after your opponent plays Bxc3+, all a3 does is provoke your opponent to play a capture they were already going to, make while further weakens your own pawn structure, all at the cost of your own move. Essentially you're helping your opponent for free. Not a huge deal in this game here, just a tip in general.
11. f4 is definitely the wrong idea here. Better would be to play cxd5 then 0-0 or 0-0 right away and then make use of the awkwardly placed queen on g5 with moves such as e4 where you can liberate your darksquare bishop on c1 and gain a tempo on the queen. Instead, when you play f4, you further shut down your c1 bishop and make more holes in your position. While f4 looks like a move thats advancing your pawns with tempo, it serves little purpose and just helps back reposition his silly g5 queen.
14. cxd5 misses the mark a bit since the black bishop on c8 is a problem piece, you playing cxd5 liberates his worse piece at the cost of your own move, once again helping your opponent develop. Better would be to maintain tension in the center with slow improvement moves like Rb1 or break with e4 where you can maintain full central control and keep black's bishop bad on c8. (the engine suggests f5 immediately but I think that's too deep and difficult an idea to understand at this level.)
After 14. cxd5 exd5 the move f5 becomes more obvious. c4 doesn't help activate your pieces. White would love to play f5 and open his rook and start chipping away at the black king's defenses. c4 doesn't create any immediate problems and allows black to develop his bishop to f5 to stop your ability to activate your pieces down the f file. if 15. c4 Bf5 16. Bxf5 Qxf5 17. Qxf5 gxf5 18. cxd5 Ne7 black will regain the the pawn and white is left with a backwards pawn on e3 and a c1 bishop that is staring at his own pawns.
17. cxd5 Bxd5 e4! would have been possible or 17. cxd5 Qxd5 only then f5 where it's now more potent
19. f6 refusing a free pawn via cxd5 was a little confusing. if black responds with Bf5, simply Rxf5 nets white a bishop pair for a rook in a much better position.
again on move 23 the idea of cxd5 followed by e4 comes to light. White must just calculate the response Nxd4 but simply Qd3 double attacks both pieces.
24. h4 is a really strange move since you essentially allowed black to open the king side (which is also of use to hive via Kh8, blacks king remains safer here) while voluntarily destroying the glue that was holding down your kingside, the h2 pawn. If black simply responds gxh4, white is in a lot of trouble
Unsure of what the idea of 28. d5?! was. It seems to just sacrifice your entire center just for the hope of exploiting g5, but black can at any time play queen or rook xc5 and white will never be able to use the g5 square to get his pieces in.
32. Qd2? is the right idea of getting your queen to the kingside, but Qc1 does it without offering a queen trade. You've already destroyed your pawn structure so you're relying on dynamic play and attacks to keep you in the game. Trading queens will just net you a worse off endgame. Luckily your opponent declines the trade
34. Rh2 just threatens the queen for the fun of it. 34. Re5! would allow you to exploit the g5 square. 35. Kh1?? blunders the game to Rxc5 followed by Bd5 winning material. Instead your opponent played Rd8 blundering mate in 2.
A rough game, but one with many learning moments. If you take advantage of all these little moments, you'll be able to put away your opponent's much quicker
after move 24 i think i was getting low on time so i didn't have much time to figure out what i was doing and qd2 was a mouseslip i was thinking of going qb1 but my mouse moved first lol
and i got worried about playing e4 cause i thought my center would be weak but looking at it now i think it'll be stronger if anything (which is why i played f6 is cause i thought cxd5 ne7 e4 would be weird
i knew i was slipping up too i know it wasn't perfect after d5 i could feel my time and position just slipping
[Event "Let's Play!"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "-"]
[White "kizu3"]
[Black "chicotedeprata"]
[Result "1-0"]
[CurrentPosition "r2r4/pp3pQk/4bP1B/2P5/2p3p1/P5q1/7R/4R2K b - - 7 37"]
[Timezone "UTC"]
[ECO "E34"]
[ECOUrl "https://www.chess.com/openings/Nimzo-Indian-Defense-Classical-Noa-Variation-5.Nf3"]
[WhiteElo "1708"]
[BlackElo "1685"]
[TimeControl "600"]
[Termination "kizu3 won by checkmate"]
[EndDate "2025.09.09"]
[EndTime "02:40:40"]
[Link "https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/i-hit-1700-rapid?quote_id=119151850&page=1#comment_box"]
[WhiteUrl "https://images.chesscomfiles.com/uploads/v1/user/472646900.599142c1.50x50o.1a4deb1ec993.png"]
[WhiteCountry "165"]
[WhiteTitle ""]
[BlackUrl "https://www.chess.com/bundles/web/images/noavatar_l.84a92436.gif"]
[BlackCountry "27"]
[BlackTitle ""]
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Qc2 d5 5. Nf3 Nc6 6. e3 Ne4 $6 7. a3 Bxc3+ $1 8.
bxc3 O-O 9. Bd3 Ng5 $2 10. Nxg5 Qxg5 11. f4 $2 Qh4+ 12. g3 Qh5 13. O-O g6 $2 14. cxd5
exd5 15. c4 $6 Bh3 16. Rf2 $6 Be6 $2 17. f5 $2 Bd7 $4 18. Be2 $1 Qh3 19. f6 $9 Be6 $2 20.
Rf4 $9 g5 $2 21. Rf2 h6 22. Bf1 Qh5 23. c5 $2 Na5 24. h4 $2 g4 $2 25. Bd2 Nc4 26. Bxc4 $2
dxc4 27. e4 c6 28. d5 $2 cxd5 $1 29. exd5 Qxd5 30. Bxh6 Rfc8 31. Re1 $6 Qd3 $9 32.
Qd2 $4 Qxg3+ $4 33. Rg2 $1 Qxh4 34. Rh2 $2 Qg3+ 35. Kh1 $4 Rd8 $4 36. Qg5+ $1 Kh7 37. Qg7#
1-0
i think i did bad in the middle game towards the end but i think i played the opening well let me know what you guys think and if you guys have some tips for me getting 1800