Hey, Shadowc. I just got through watching your game and I see the mistakes you made. I'll give you a deep analysis. Just give me a shoutout when you're ready and I'll send it to you by message.

Not at all, I love these kinds of advices! I'm here to learn.

The Queen exchange was really a desition based on a feeling. I think it was very inmature and precipitated, but I was feeling that the opening quickly went into the unknown for me and I was trying to lower the level of danger.

It's true what you say about tricky  situations, but on this one I prefer to loose some games and learn this way about my mistakes (i.e did I really had to sac the bishop? Well... let's just see how it goes!)

I'm studying anyway on my own. Mostly openings which is the subject I lack the most and is giving me headaches currently.

Yelena is also right about one thing: If you don't know the openings you risk never recovering from a poor initial position when playing against decent+ players. I think in this game, the first big doubt in the opening (the way I exchanged and the reason I wanted the Queen exchange) set things up for the rest. Is that right?

I would love any further comments 

My only advice to you is that when you are playing a stronger player, avoid any tricky situations. (I guess one can ask: how do you know the tricky positions if you don't experience them? Well, learn them before hand!) In this game, Erik saw some things that it appears you didn't see, for example, why he played 14.Bd3.

Stick to the things you know very well or that are very safe (ones you can't make fatal mistakes early in the game), then move slowly to the open and highly tactical openings.

Well, just one more thing. Unless you make a colossal blunder, nothing should be unfixable in the opening. Erik has given you a nice pointer by stating how many of his pieces were developed compared to your pieces. He is saying: development is important in the opening.

I am not sure why you wanted the Queen exchange. It seems to me that it was more advantageous to White. May be 7...Nf6 or d6 would have been better. I thought 14...Ng4+ would have been better.

I hope I wasn't too critical

I see your points. Interesting.

Anyway, I feared that b4 would cause Na4 to c5, and I would end up with some problem there. But without the bishop guarding the e4 pawn, the plan isn't so bad, as you say.

So the opening is one of the keys of this game. I wonder what you would hve played on the bishop x knight exchange on move 4.

look at the game after move 9. i have two developed pieces, a centralized king (which doesn't matter really since no queens), and a HUGE center. you have a knight that has moved 3 times and that's it. at the end of move 12 it's even worse. 14. Bd3 was to avoid Rxg7, b4, knight moves, and your Nxe4. i was just protecting the e4 pawn.

I know see 5... Nxe5 is a mistake. the right move here might have been 5...Qf6+ then Qxe5...