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So I'm what I would call a half-good to OK player, and I have the app chess free on my phone. I play against that AI all the time, and on level 6, I have a pretty bad win record (18%). I decided to try and teach myself how to perform sound sacrifices, and in the process played this game. Where the heck did I go wrong?

[FEN "..."]
1. e3 e5 2. Qh5 Nc6 3. Bc4 d5 4. Bb5 Bd6 5. d4 Nf6 
6. Qe2 e4 7. Nh3 Bd7 8. Nc3 a6 9. Bxc6 Bxc6 10. a3 Qd7 
11. f3 O-O-O 12. b3 Nh5 13. fxe4 dxe4 14. Qxh5 f5 15. Qe2 h6 
16. O-O g5 17. a4 g4 18. Nf4 h5 19. Qf2 h4 20. Ng6 g3 
21. hxg3 hxg3 22. Qxf5 Qxf5 23. Rxf5 Rh8g8 24. Ne5 Rd8f8 25. Rxf8+ Rxf8 
26. Nxc6 bxc6 27. Nxe4 Rg8 28. Bb2 Rg6 29. Rf1 Kb7 30. Nc5+ Kb6 
31. Nd7+ Ka5 32. Bc3+ Bb4 33. Rf5+ c5 34. Rxc5#

I have the black pieces in the game.

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  • 4
    Could you put your game into a PGN board in the question for us? It'll be easier to reference the moves in the answer
    – user1108
    Commented Aug 14, 2015 at 10:46
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    I'm voting to close this and will rescind once the OP posts the board here. The link destination requires a login.
    – Tony Ennis
    Commented Aug 14, 2015 at 11:37
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    Ok, sorry for the late reply, I have pasted the game into the question. Please remove your close request.
    – trailrunnersquared
    Commented Aug 20, 2015 at 12:13
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    With 12...Nh5 you essentially give away a piece, for no compensation. You manage to get a reasonable attack afterwards, but 17...g4 allows White to block everything. You would like to play ...f4 (probably after playing Rdf8), opening up the position for your bishops, rooks and queen.
    – Glorfindel ♦
    Commented Aug 20, 2015 at 15:04
  • Yeah, 12..Nh5 was a bit of a blunder for me. Like I said, I'm not Tal or Carlsen.
    – trailrunnersquared
    Commented Aug 20, 2015 at 15:49

2 Answers 2

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  1. b3 Nh5 following
  2. fxe4 leading to losing your knight (did not see the discovered attack)
  3. Qxh5

To save the knight you would have needed to play pawn g6 on 13. instead of playing dxe4

Playing back to Nf6 will get you forked with white moving pawn to e5 on move 14.

It is all down the hill from then on.

Also on 31.

Moving the King out into the wild is also problematic as you saw with the pinned bishop and the checkmate with the rook!

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The move 12. Nh5, losing a knight, is what lost the game. The rest, as they say, is a matter of technique. If you thought that was a sound sacrifice then you need to study more openings and tactics.

  1. g4 was bad for black.

You missed 19. d5, winning another bishop. Additionally, you should not have let black play to open up the kingside by letting your pawn attack the queen. and pawn together.

Black putting the king on a5 was asking to be mated and end it.

White opened poorly. You should have been more aggressive in punishing that. And made fewer mistakes than white did.

White played poorly. Clearly you played even less good.

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