redneck gets rear end kicked

okay at the suggestion of another poster on my bragging thread I am posting a game where I get thumped. your criticism is welcome. as is encouragement. (don't be all negative, give me a bone)

 I am not much better than you, so my bone may not be that good, but your moves 3, 4 and 5 effectively closed your rear rank to further development. While the same white moves connected the queen and queen castle while protecting the bishop when it moved forward to threaten your knight and bishop if you move your knight.

Then move six white opened up its king’s bishop diagonal so that when you took the pawn white’s reply was to take back and develop his king’s bishop at the same time.

By then I would say the game was effectively decided.

I make the same type of mistakes, so all I can suggest is that you try not to block pieces as you develop your rear rank. It’s what I am trying to do to improve my game.

If you would like challenge me, and we can chat through a game and maybe help each other

sohowgoodami, he had no trouble developing every piece.  What are you talking about?

Anyways dxc4?! was a slight error, you should have waited for your opponent to play Be3/Bd2 first, so as to force him to move again with Bxc4 (and he loses a tempo)

Ne5?! wasn't too bad of an idea (relieve the pressure and cramping a little by trading off pieces but if white had played Nxe5 Bxe5 Bf4 he could gain the bishop pair.  I preferred Rc8 instead.

12... Nxc3 would have been better then Qxe7 for forcing the trade of pieces.

After the pieces were traded the game was so dead drawn I don't have many suggestions.  Except that I would have played Ne4 (f3 Ne6) instead of Na5.  As the adage goes, a knight on the rim is dim.

"Actually, putting all of your pawns on the opposite color often only increases the bishop's scope and effectiveness" -do you mean to decrease the bishop's scope ?

If like 6...pxp?! should consider playing 2...pxp QGA, with similar aims, but with chances of more activity.

Main error was completely missed evaluated the BvN endgame. With pawns both side of board white is better, and would need to play very accurately to hold it. Very often Q+N can be better than Q+B, so maybe would have held more comfortably with 21...Qc7 instead off 21...Qd7.

I prefer 13...Nf6 to your 13...Nxc3, since Nf6 develops the other knight, supports the knight on e4 and protects the bishop on b7 with the queen. If 14. Bxb7, then 14...Qxb7 15. Nxe4 Nxe4 16. dxc5 Nxc5 and you have a good position. 13...Nxc3 and 14...Bxf3 just gives up the diagonal, uses a tempo, and allows white to reposition his queen to a better square.

If he hadn't been so keen to trade down pieces, you might have been in trouble. White could have tried 17. Bd3; Rh4 and Qh3 to provoke a weakness in your kingside.

In the endgame, you obviously just overestimated the strength of the passed pawn, and shouldn't have left the h7 pawn hanging.

I agree with the endgame analyses.  In the endgame where pawns are on opposite ends of the board then the bishop is better.  If the pawns are on the same side then the knight is slightly better.  It seemed that getting the knight trapped was your downfall in this game but don't be too hard on yourself.  I'm not quite sure but if you got your knight on the kingside on move 25 then you might have stood a better chance.

I hope you don't mind if I as the opponent in this game make a few comments. First, mindbody made some excellent observations. In our chat during the game, I even mentioned that I thought he might try for the queen trade. According to the computer analysis, after 11...Ne4, I should have gone in for 12.Nxe4.

As far as the ending, boy was it a dead draw. But neither one of us is good enough to absolutely assure that draw. My illustrious redneck pointed out his strategic thinking after move 22, which is very telling!

Sure I couldn't take his pawns, but he would have a hard time moving any of them too because of the bishop. I also intended to limit his knight, which a bishop is very good at. So his comments show how he way-underestimated my bishop compared to his knight.