You never see the "ranking" of your opponent, it's only a number. You must think than you and your opponent have the same pieces and that pieces moves equal!

I always look at the rating, it gives me an incentive to excel it the rating is higher than mine. On the other hand, if lower, then I consider every move that the opponent offers with an effort to teach where (if) mistakes occur.

I look at the players rating, decide if he's not good or not and play my opening depending on how they do.

You initiate at first, to provoke is to tempt

Typical

Passive, but not bad!. Actives options are 3 Bb5, Bc4, d4, Nc3. Now white closes your LSB but remaining a solid position.

Not only active options, but better development moves. The basic goals of a chess opening are: 1 - control the centre of the board, 2 - develop your pieces, 3 - castle early. d3 limits one of white's powerful pieces - the bishop!

3.d3 is a pretty conservative opening, but quite good with the right kind of follow up: a King's Indian Attack, say. Seeing this, I would be expecting g3, Bg2 and 0-0 to follow shortly.

LSB is stuck and bad

Black opens the centre with the possibility of activate both bishops. Black takes the initiative.

4. a3 is a second very quiet move in a row, which doesn't really achieve anything other than to give black the advantage. Black seizes this, as alejandro83 notes, with the d5 break.

a3? may stop a move like Bb4, but this early it is not recommended. More sound play is recommended, and rather than try and play defense, become the aggressor with 4. Bg5!?

id=darknite13 is right: and in any case, ...Bb4 is (would be) quite harmless. Better 4th moves for White would have been 4.g3, 4.Nc2 or 4.Nc3, or even 4.Be2.

May be, better si 6 ... f6, without allow the bishop exchange and keeping pressure in the center.

Looks it alright, especially with white's LSB entombed and not yet ready to do anything on the a2-g8 diagonal. Black could also castle queenside and use f6 as a stepping stone to a kingside pawn push.

Black is dominating the center at this point, and has the more active position.

Yes, black controls more of the centre, white is slightly cramped, so black should not allow the exchange of bishops. Simply 6.... f6 is best for black

This move is risky. White creates a hole en d4 and weakness the d-pawn. White doesn't gain a tempo, because the knight goes to f4 with threat over important squares... I think than, in this position, black has big advantage.

I agree, white should have continued with development, Be2 followed by 0-0

A well motivated thrust, but it does leave White with a long term problem: his d-pawn is left weak and 'backward', and the hole at d4 ain't too pleasant, neither. Although Black will have to lose a bit of time, Black will have a (slight) edge here.

Queenside castling is bad

Already putting pressure on the d-pawn...

You're digging yourself into a deep deep hole with your position. d4 (a center square!) is weak, and your kingside is weak as well (h3 and f3 are vulnerable).

I'm inclined to disagree with darknite13 on this point - provided that White plans to follow up with Bg2, and to build up his defence of d3, a kind of Benoni position. If he can hold the d-pawn, then the central light squares fall firmly under White's control, with chances of Q-side operations.

More weakness in white position and black don't allowed the short castle.

Yep. When looking at the two previous pawn moves, you have to consider where the knight can go to. Here, you've forced black's knight to a decent square, all while just weakening your pawns. So when you consider the c4 move, look at black's best reply (Nf4). Do you like it? No. So then c4 is out, and you need to find another move.

I'd be inclined to ignore the knight and play 10.Bg2 here, then follow up with Nc3, Qe2 and 0-0-0.

Not entirely pointless. I wouldn't have swapped off the knight for bishop; the bishop on h3 would probably be harder to kick than the knight. But Bg2 looks an option. Or this is ok; maybe white could castle queenside.

Nc3 instead threatens Nd5, winning a tempo and a well-placed knight.

More sound for white is Nc3!

If you think a move is pointless, then why not try something else?

This move - or Qe2 - had to be on the agenda somewhere, but probably ought to have waited on 10.Bg2 or 10.Nc3. Move order can be a consideration!

I wonder could black have tried 10. ... f5 instead? The aim is e4, trying to open up white's king. Maybe it's a bit risky seeing how undeveloped he is yet.

If 10...f5, 11.Bxh3 might have been an effective defence. Instead of 11.Nbd2 I still prefer 11.Bg2, which leaves the knight able to go to c3.

Again, I prefer Bg2. There, the bishop aims towards black's king, while black's knight on h3 doesn't threaten white's king.

I prefer Bg2 as well, as taking the knight will leave the light squares weak on the K-side. But White has fortunately yet to castle, which minimizes the damage

Bg2 would been better. All is not lost for white. Castling Queen Side will link your rooks. Exciting game so far.

? Blunder. Rg1 was needed.

I don't think this is a blunder, I think 0-0-0 is an excellent move

Agree with Charles. Possibly damalfi was thinking of the 'fork' at g2, but there is no fork.

Glad to see you made this move! It does look as the knight on f3 was in danger, but rook on d2 is there to cover his back and vice versa.

Queen is not supposed to be passive

I don't understand this move. Exchange pieces favours the defence. Black must attack the weak centre with both rooks and bishop for open lines. Now, with the exchanges, black keeps an small advantage, but no more.

Possibly Black was equally beglamoured of the apparent double attack. Better was 13...Bf5 or ...Be6.

It just goes to show you that you need to look over your moves at any level.

Poor plan from black; there was no need to give up the bishop. The board is open, white's weak pawn (d3) is on a white square, the queen is behind it - the LSB could have caused all sorts of threats. But off the board, it can do nothing.

Black's play is becoming questionable at this point. Last 2 black moves are head scratchers. I would be trying to keep the bishop and attack white's weak, open position.

I think Black's plan must have been based on a simple oversight.

This is a turning point in the game for white. There is no fork and you moved your rook to g1 attacking blacks LSB.

Now, no more hole in d4 and the weak d-pawn is hard to attack because d4-pawn blockade the action of the rook. White takes air! It's true than black hasn't more weak than d4-pawn (small weak, of course), but the only open column is owned of the white rook

Black allowed white's position to improve with bad plays in the last few moves.

Why Black on move 16 took with the pawn is a puzzle, as it masks the one true weakness in White's game. Instead 16...Rxd4 was the caper, hoping to triple the major pieces on the d-file. A possible continuation was 16...Rxd4 17.Rge1 Rhd8. Not only does this put the kibosh on 18.Re4, Black 'threatens' 18...Rxc4ch!? 19.dxc4 Rxd2. Sure, Black isn't very likely to play that line, but what it shows is the presence of unsettling tactical shots down the d-file on account of the weak and immobilized d-pawn.

looking good for White!

Agree with redfox

Black needed to challenge White's tenure of the only open file. Black's sole advantage - and it is a very slender one - lies in the flexibility of his unmoved pawns. But White's formation isn't so very rigid neither, so the game could be said to be 'too close to call' here.

It is very close at this point.

Well, black is responding to the threat made by your queen on the a file. I may have gone Kb8 instead.

19.Qa4! was an excellent respons to Black's challenge on the e-file, threatening a7 and the rook at e8 both. The upshot was that Black was forced (pretty much) into a very unfavourable exchange that awards white sole tenure of the only open file. White must now have the edge.

That just shows you black is threatened!