Help!

Originally posted by range blasts
Once again... I ask for help/analysis on my games... 🙂 thx

Game 3450519

Just had a quick look at the above game and your move 13....f6
As knights can be quite awkward I think if you're going to give them a kick with a pawn then it's really worth checking to see where it might jump to...where would you move if it was you're knight being attacked by a pawn. In this instance the knight had a really good square to go to...so you helped your opponent.

When you're ahead in material (as you were in this game) it's often a good idea to make even trades...it makes the imbalance you have more significant - e.g.if you are one piece up and all the other pieces disappear with even trades then you have one piece and your opponent has none.

Also try to make trades that favour you...even if it's just in a small way. For example, if you have a knight on a good outpost (where it is defended by a pawn but can't be attacked by your opponents pawns) then it might not so good to capture your opponents bad bishop (blocked in by it's own pawns). In fact this would solve two problems for your opponent 1) How were they going to deal with that strong knight 2) How were they going to make use of the bad bishop

I think the real value of your pieces depends on where it is and what it's doing in the game. I once played a game where my opponent moved their bishop three times then exchanged it for my knight that was still on it's starting square. So they took a bishop they had invested three whole moves in and the traded it for my sleeping knight...what a waste of moves!

Hope the above helps in some way and my apologies if it's stuff you're already familiar with.