I played black. I met d4 with d5 mostly because I don’t know too much opening theory from black’s side in the queen’s pawn game. I hoped I could get through the opening by following the basic guidelines of getting developed quickly and keeping my pieces coordinated. I’m not sure how well I succeeded. On move 8 I decided to take the free pawn. Move 9: more development. Now on move 14 I challenged the bishop pinning my knight even though I thought recapturing with the pawn (if bishop decided to take) might compromise my pawn structure. Would it have? Are there any other good options here? Move 18: I didn’t see a better place for my bishop so I went with a bishop trade since I thought I was getting rid of my worse bishop. Now at move 21 I think things start to get interesting and I spent a lot of time on this one. I could see my opponent was going to for my kingside with his pawns and his queen and dark square bishop were pointing in that direction as well. But I figured since his king was uncastled I could take advantage of that so I put my rook on e8. Is this a good strategy you think or is there a more direct way of going on the attack?

Move 23: as I figured was going to happen, my opponent pushes their pawn to kick my knight around. I was sort of fine with this because I thought if I could just break open the position by attacking in the center I’d be in a much better position. So I move my knight to d7 and push my pawn to e5. My opponent continues to encroach on my kingside but I figured I had enough steam to coordinate an attack. So I took the pawn on d4 attacking the knight on c3 and giving a discovered check.

Move 32: I ignore the threat to the pawns in front of my king because at this point I can see some check mating opportunities and I was feeling daring so I put my queen on the open file threatening mate in 1. Would it have been wiser to be more patient and address the threats? Or was I in a good enough position to keep on the offensive? Move 34: I’m not sure what my idea was here except, I guess, to clear a line of sight for my bishop to get it involved in the attack. The rest was me continuing the attack. How did I do? Thanks in advance.