Well i think that idea wasnt a good one reason being is that this seems to be an open game and trading off a bishop on an open game = bad idea.  There are probably exceptions to this, but in general i follow this rule.  If the queen wasnt guarding the knight it could of worked out because you would of also opened up the king side.

(thinking) Hmmmm

Looking closer i see you moved your bishop twice in the opening to zig zag it around your pawns... (maybe a feinchetto would of worked better)

(i try to not move the same piece more then once in the opening unless i have a very good reason in doing so. Considering that this was the opening and there was still alot of play left i doubt that you had a concrete plan to win material or the game at this point.)

I also noticed you moved your bishop back (light square one) on move 10. This is why i was asking you about what you were thinking when you didnt have a concrete plan because it seems to me you wasted some moves in the opening.

(you can probably easily beat me but i am getting better at chess and i am just trying to find out the reasoning and thought process your going through exactly).

I was aiming for the plan of bringing my Bishop to c6 and trade it off for the Knight on f3 which I should have done with 9...Bxf3 but I hesitated and second guessed myself which resulted in a bad game.

Hey.. Panzer when you play and you dont have a concrete plan, what is your goal and thinking? (and you better not say to win) lol

 

I personally dont like the defense you played but thats just a personal preference. I am trying to figure out exactly why you let him basically dictate the battle with an odd opening.  Dont get me wrong tho i am far from a good player but i think a really good honest answer to this might help both of us in the long run as a chess player.

Yes, I had considered 3...d4 and soon after e6-e5 although in this case white will get good counterplay with the f2-f4 pawn advance so I was not so comfortable with this formation. But yes, the variation is totally playable for black.

Move 3 why did you dxe4 when you could of pushed it 1 square straight ahead d4 and pressure his other knight instead of capturing a pawn on a square you didn't guard?(I also believe this would of really hindered his development) Your next move would of been assuming his knight wasn't hung was to play your knight to guard that pawn you just pushed. It really depends what exactly he decides to do, but here is one variation... from move 3 on.

 

Let me know what you think of this variation.

I have the feeling your position became slightly uncomfortable when white played Ne5, so I wonder if you couldn't play Bxf3 and c6 earlier : this Caro-Kann structure looks very solid.

Of course, white has the two bishops, but it's not easy to open lines.

Nice annotations !  

Yes, although I was a bit worried about opposite side castling which would lead to an unbalanced attacking game against a higher rated opponent so I wanted to try to stay solid and castle on same side if possible.

Thanks for posting this..I didn't see how 8...Qxf6 was playable because I wouldn't have seen 9...Bxf3 either!

 This would have also opened up the possibility for queen side castling. 

Yes, I think you are right. Although in recent practice before the event I was having some negative results in the French variation 3...Nf6 4. e5 Nfd7 and this is why I avoided this variation. But yeah, it is a totally playable line of the French and I may switch back to it.

I think 3... Nf6 is the way to go, practically forcing white to push the e-pawn (4. d3? 5. c5 threatening Nc6 d4 and e5).

So 3... Nf6 4. e5 Nfd7 5. Ne2 c5 6. c3 Nc6 7. d4 is a pretty good french position for black, I'd say!

Yes, it seems 10...Be4 was playable and I did consider this although I was a bit worried about 11. Bxe4 Nxe4 12. Qg4 and maybe white can get away with taking that pawn on g7. I could not really calculate it out to see if there was sufficient compensation but I decided not to enter this line against a higher rated opponent.

     I think 10...Be4 to keep from getting so cramped and stopping the doubled f pawns and your kings defense weakening. I know the bishops would then have been exchanged and he could have  attacked your knight for a tempi  but I think it's more equal a game. Of course, you kicked my butt in our chess.com "greet" game so all advice should be taken with a grain of salt. Please post more games if ya get the time.