Waiting in the English

Its been a while since I posted anything here. I just wanted to publish this chess game I played a while ago and do a little analysis on it. This was my first and only time playing an 1800+ player, so this is probably the best of my games that I can learn from.



I think my downfall started at 10. b4. Here is the one thing I didn't consider at the time: The English opening is a defensive opening at heart. After using a defensive opening I violated one of the fundamentals of defense; patience. I lost my patience at move 10 perhaps even at move 9, I was attempting a queenside pawn storm. What I think I really should have been doing was looking for a weakness in my opponent's formation, rather than weakening mine for an attack.
If I had waited a little longer to mobilize my force, I might have been better off.

at 11. h4, I don't know what I was responding to at all. If I was going for the queenside pawnstorm, now would have been the perfect time to add some pressure to that side of the board.
Instead I get stuck trying to make a weak bishop strong again with 11. ... e4 12. f3. My opponent is able to initiate the exchange, which means that f3 was giving my opponent a tempo, which I certainly do not want as an attacker in this position with a weak queenside pawn structure.

From there it just kept going downhill, he was an attacker with a solid structure, and I was defending with a weak one. I really think 26. Bf4 was a move I didn't think much on because I normally would have seen that Qd4+ makes it a wasted move. But then instead of bocking with my bishop and only losing a pawn, I decide to block with my rook in hopes of attacking d6. It turned out that with me initiating my own pinned state, my mobility was locked up for the rest of the game. And from there he proceeded to finish the game as any good player would.

After reflecting on this game, I think my main mistakes are as follows:
1. I started out with a defensive opening. Generally the goal of defensive play is to limit your enemy's progress and search for a vulnerability before you attack. I attacked before my opponent revealed a vulnerability. My pawn structure was weak as a result, and that's where my lines started to fall in the middlegame.
2. After deciding to go on offense, I gave up a valuable tempo for no reason. If i was going to attack, I should have been doing that for the rest of the game. Note that changing from defense to offense to defense in the opening is completely unfocused. You either focus on attacking or defending at any given time, or else your pieces will not be positioned to do either well.

As usual any comments are greatly appreciated. Even if it's just to let me know you exist and have in fact spent some time reading my blog, at least I won't feel like I'm wasting my time writing.

Until next time...