Warbler said:
darth_ender said:
Therefore you had two options: develop your pieces while simultaneously forcing me to move her
this is what I would have liked to do, but I am not sure how I could have done that in our game. One thing I think I should have done after you captured my bishop on d5 with your queen was move my f pawn to f3, thus preventing your queen from capturing my g pawn.
darth_ender said:
But really, the biggest error you made was your queenside castle.
yeah, that was quite a blunder, considering what happened in one of our previous games, where you caught both of my rooks on the same diagonal.
darth_ender said:
You did well moving your queen to f8 to prevent the loss of your rook.
I think you meant f3.
Yes I do. I added this sentence after I'd realized I had the game saved. And when I'm not paying attention (since 8 is obviously the last rank), and looking at the tiny letters and number scrunched on my software squares, it looks like f8. I should have known better, but as always, I was typing in a flurry and not paying attention.
darth_ender said:
And look at that! I did save the game after all! Sorry. Well, I guess I got it all right. But one thing I notice also is wasted moves. You moved your queen from f3 to g3, then back to f3. When you first moved to g3, I thought you were going to force an exchange, which I didn't want but was ready to accept. But then you didn't, and moved back. You probably didn't need to move it in the first place, and I'm really not clear why you moved it to g3 in the first place.
the reason I moved my queen back to f3(and I am not saying it was a good reason) was so that if you moved you e5 pawn to e4, I would capture it with my pawn on d3, you would then capture it with your bishop on f5, which I would capture with my queen. It was probably bad reasoning. I probably should have exchanged queens when your moved your queen to g6.
I see your reasoning. You did have your knight on c3 to ensure a fair trade. Yeah, if I had been in your shoes, I probably would have gone ahead and traded queens.
darth_ender said:
Every move should be maximized when possible, especially in the early game. You gave me two more moves to place my pieces where I wanted them, so that even though I hadn't yet castled, I was pretty secure in my little fortress.
what two moves are your referring to? the first two moves?
Moving your queen to g3 then back to f3. If to g3, then force the trade. If not, then keep her on f3 would have been my suggestion. The back and forth ended up costing you two moves, and you could have kept her where she was while moving other pieces in that same time.
darth_ender said:
Hope this helps. Let me know your thoughts, or if you have any questions or critiques of my analysis.
yes it does help. I appreciate you giving me this analysis. Hopefully, it will help me learn from my mistakes.
I'm glad. I hope I don't ever come off as condescending or anything. I try to be forthright, and I honestly don't consider myself to be anything great--merely decent. But if I'm able to sharpen your game, then it's definitely worth it :)
We could try a harder handicap, such as Pawn and Two Moves (with me playing black) or Knight Odds (which I believe has me play white). Truthfully the more I give you, the more scared I feel. But it's worth it to try to even out our game. :)