Annotated chess game

Pointless. Bg5 would waste tempo; and Ng5 does not attack anything. Much better is Nf6 or c5.

yeah,with that e-pawn supporting d5 there is no pressure after Bg5. only thing it does is possibly surrendering the bishop pair which gives black the advantage. black is already behind in development here and h6 doesn't support black to get equal with white.

Not so normal; in this kind of position Black wants to play c5 before Nc6.

Black will want to contest d4 at some point to improve the activity of his pieces in the middle game. There are two ways to do that: pushing the e pawn to e5, or the c pawn to c5. With white's N on f3 and B on f4, pushing the e pawn doesn't look very promising. That leaves the pushing the c pawn to c5. But this is hard to do with the N on c6. So after 4... Nc6, black is going to have a cramped position.

Loses time for White.

Utterly pointless. Bb5 would be great for you as White must lose time or exchange your bad bishop.

Not a great place for a bishop; they are long-range pieces. In the centre, they attack diagonals pointing opposite ways; rarely the best use of the piece as one normally attacks one side or the other.

b4 is not development!

It's pretty clear that White will castle kingside, but there's no urgency about it.

Looks like white wants to play c4 and gain space on the Q-side. At least that would be consistent with his play so far. So an interesting move here would be 10... a5, putting immediate pressure on the advanced Q-side pawns.

because the g7 pawn would've been unprotected on 8 ... Bd6.

Well then why didn't you play 8... Bd6 in one move, instead of 8... Be7 and now ...Bd6? You've spent two moves on something you could have done in one move. EDIT: Please explain how 8... Be7 protects the g7 pawn, and why does it need protection? What threat is black trying to counter with 8... Be7? Black shouldn't be worried about white playing Bxf6, as that's actually good for black, and he can just recapture with ...Qxf6.

12... e5 is great, black normally wants to get in either this or ...c5 in Queen pawn openings to free up his position.

And black has managed to equalize!

No; this only weakens White's defence, and has no reason to be played right now. White should complete development by moving the queen to connect the rooks.

I'd play 14... Qe2 so that I can later play ...Rd8, with an x-ray on the white Q. 15.h3 is puzzling, I'm not sure what white is trying to do with that. A natural move here is 15.c4, contesting the center and gaining space on the Q-side.

No, it isn't. Black doesn't get any "position" out of it.

Black needs to finish developing his pieces. Might I suggest 15... Bd7, connecting the rooks? 15... Nh5 is just bizarre, and the fact that white replied 16.Nh4 is even more bizarre. Then comes the suicidal 16... Nf4. What made you think this was a good move?

Helped, of course, by 18. g3? when Nf3 was obvious and good.

i think you are referring to ''exchange to get ahead of development'' with 1.e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3. for example.

Bg4, obeying the principle of "exchange when ahead" and also preparing to take control of the open e-file, would be a good move. EDIT: No, I mean that the side ahead on material (White has an extra knight) increases the value of that material by making equal exchanges.

The side ahead in material should simplify the position, since that reduces the opponent's ability to get counter-play. However, that doesn't mean one should exchange material at every opportunity. For example, it would be foolish to exchange a strong active piece for an undeveloped / inactive one. That's not the case here, since the B/Q battery is annoying white's h3 square, but if the Q's were already off the board, then white should think twice swapping his good bishop.