Wow, Fromper. I really like your thorough response. Thanks!

After your 5th move, you're in the Exchange variation of the French, just by an odd move order. The king side fianchetto (g3 and Bg2) is just weird for the French. In most lines of the French, that bishop does well on d3, and white castles on that side without moving the f, g, or h pawns at all.

 

You could have played Nxd5 on your 9th move, even with the queen still on d8. After 9. Nxd5 Qxd5 10. Bxb4, and you're a pawn up with an attack on his rook. What you played worked out better for you in the long run, but only because your opponent messed up and gave you opportunities. This would have won you a free pawn without having to rely on your opponent to mess up and give you something better. He did mess up bigger later on, but you have to assume your opponents will play better than that, so take advantage of every small advantage that comes your way.

 

By the time you got to your 11th move, you had lots of tactical shots. Nxc7 won a pawn and an exchange (knight for rook) while trading bishops, which is good, but it wasn't your only tactical win. I see two other moves that win just as much material or more. See if you can spot them. 

 

[EDIT: Hmm... upon further review, one of those two moves I saw has a strong defense that I didn't notice at first glance. This is why I'm only rated 1363 USCF. So I only see one other strong tactic besides what you played on move 11.] 

 

By the time you castled on your 15th move, it was kind of unneccessary. With a material advantage and queens off the board, I would have made trading off the remaining pieces my top priority. I'm thinking 15. Nh4, which leaves your knight and bishop attacking his knight and bishop, so no matter how he defends, you've got a forced trade of minor pieces. You've got more material, so even trades leave him with less to attack you with, while your material advantage gains importance. Just watch out for the response 15. ... Re8, setting up a revealed check by moving the knight from e4. Castling wasn't terrible there, but I just don't think it was necessary. Actually, I'm looking at queen side castling as a possibility, too, just because your king can protect those weak pawns on that side.

 

19. Rxe2 was a blunder. You gave up a rook for the bishop, when you could have just played Bxc2, winning his knight for free.

 

23. Rxe8+ was another blunder. I consider it a blunder to make an even material trade when you could have won a free knight. You just had to move your knight out of harms way, then capture his trapped knight on your next move for free, ie 23. Ne3, then 24. Rxa1.

 

Locking up the king side pawns was good for you, especially since they got locked up on light squares where your bishop could capture them. Actually, you probably should have gone pawn grabbing with your bishop on b7 and f5 before sending your king after his knight. The knight's trapped, so it's not going anywhere, but some of those pawns are still moving targets. Take them while you can. By that time, you had an easy enough win that it didn't much matter, though. It was just a matter of mopping up.

 

My biggest complaint in the endgame is actually the rook promotion. Instead of fearing mistakes, learn from them. You need to promote to a queen at every opportunity and just remember that accidental stalemate, so you learn from it and don't make the same mistake again. That will make you a better player in the long run.

 

 --Fromper

Because when I was a freshman, I had stalemated a game, and so I have ever since promoted to rooks. :/

Why a rook?!

awesome game!!!!