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Seeking advice on a recent match

Lost to a higher-rated player. Feel like I was good up to around move #19, and then it fell apart. Obviously the gaffe at move #25 killed me, but I'm seeking advice for my moves before that. Thank you very much.

en.lichess.org/ziUk7aTSst7D
Hello, 12. Qb3 was premature (wrong plan or did you really think of Qxb7??).
14. d5 clearly misses the threat to your queen and queenside. First stabilize your position in the queenside a bit, before opening up lines. d5 also gives way to the center for your opponents light pieces (knight and black-squared bishop).
I am an amateur player but I hope my analysis may be still be helpful to you. I am unfamilliar with the opeining you choose however you seemed to have played it well and at move 11. Stockfish gives you a very expliotable +0.8 evaluation. It is here where I think I will begin.
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First if we are to look at the features of the position it might be instructive in developing a long term plan and of course helpful in the immediate moves that could follow.
I see that Black has fianchettoed his/her Dark square Bishop and has a good structure of pawns around his/her King. This is often the Black Kings best defender and best minor pecice outright, thus one may entertain the possiblity of exchanging it at some point.
There is a half-open B-file. Rooks gerenrally do well on these types of files as they can cover the entire file and often thier attack cannot be reciprocated by other types of pecies. Occupying the open B file could be a good idea. (And connecting your Rooks as well).
Your pawn structure seems to have given you some control over the center squares. All of Black's pawns are above the 5th Rank. Blacks Major pecies (Queen and Rooks) seem like they may have difficulty activating themselves as they are boxed in by their own pawns.
Your Dark square bishop is undefened and there is definite tension in the fact that only a pawn blocks the x-ray of Black's Dark square Bishop. (Also note that there dark square bishop is defened by the King and that the Pawn is attacked thrice by your opponent. The only reason he/she will not take is because it will currently require giving up an exchange) that could change qucikly.
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Now on Move 12. White played Qb3?! Why is this not the best move? I believe it is somewhat short sighted. While it does connect your Rooks and *develops* your Queen there are some problems. The fact that Whites Queen is threatning to take the b7 pawn is a vaccous threat. By that I mean that it is easily defended against, often also offering your opponent the oppitunity to develop thier peices at the same time. Generally sending the Queen to attack without support is not a good idea as your opponent can easily gain a tempo. The second and perhaps more crucial reason Qb3 is not a good move is because of the move you were not able to play instead, namely the computer suggested Nd2. You gain a tempo by threatening Blacks undefedned lightsquare bishop- this will force your opponent to retreat one of their few active pecies as currently it only has one safe square! And can be easily chased away later with a number of moves. This is important because the bishop is controlling a number of key squares in Whites half that are curcial to your position e.g b1 (for the rook) as well as limiting the queen.

Move 13. Highlights the same point. Threatning the Knight is not particualrly usellful if your opponent can threaten your Queen on the next move, thus gaining a tempo.

Move 14. Tucking your Queen away in a coner does not seem like a good idea, your Queen is already running out of safe squares. While the move is not bad (at least from the comp's perspective). The computer suggested move might keep your Queen a little more active and freer.) While computers are really useful sometimes I think it is not always best to take their ideas on unquestionably or mimic them. This is because computers can out calculate a player like me many time over and thus a computer is safe in many positions that I may not be able to realistically hold. Just food for thought, I think that while Qa3 is evaluated as not bad from a comps perspective as a player I think I would struggle to maintain a health position with it.

17. Is a subtle point, and here I have simply tried to understand the computers reasoning- while the evaluation hardly shifts from a human (agreeably imperfect) perspective there might be a reason trading immediatly is not best. By trading Queens this allows a pawn on d6 for black so that when you trade peices on the next move the dark square bishop on e5 now has an outpost, i.e it is defended by a pawn and thus a far more difficult peice to remove. If white had played an intermediate move like Rb2, not only would white have occupied the b file but also denied the outpost for the dark square bishop.

19. B-file occupied- Good!

20. Pushing the pawn not only weakens the dark squares further (Black has a Dark-square bishop to exploit them!) but also makes it more difficult and weakening to push the dark square bishop away as f4 can no longer be played easily. e4 also becomes a undefended pawn and whites bishop must watch over it... pawns are often best when connected i.e protecting one another so that other peices are free to do other things! also the advace doesn't really gain anyting ( the bishop blocks it from going any further).
The computer suggested move hints at initating a kingside attack using the light squares which is logical as you have the potential to control them with a light square bishop. I would have thought of playing a3 as it stops the creation of another outpost (supporting pawn) that blacks dark square bishop can make use of - which is well into your side of the board and now that a pawn is even closer to queening,

21. d3 pawn is undefened (i.e loose) and the light square bishop is not doing anything there in fact it is paralyzing your Kingside pawns!

22. Logical move- creating a flight square for the King. and potential for playing f4 later and disrupting the outpost on ...

23. Dropping a pawn and boxing your king in by occupying his flight square! not to mention no useful threats are made by the bishop on g2 Blacks peices are swarming / invading the queenside- you should think about protecting it, or sometimes attacking Blacks King quickly.

24.Further blocks the bishop and opens the bishop up t attack. Also allows Bd4+ which forces your King away from protecting the rook!.
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Now that we have covered the specifics, I think in this game you may have benefited by looking to attack your opponent, rather than simply defending or responding reactively to your opponents moves. Some ideas to help are: identifying targets- like for example Your opponents B7 pawn or maybe even better your opponents Kingside starting with his/her Dark square Bishop. Playing with a little more initiative may also have involved advancing your central pawns to fully dominate the center or begin a Kingside attack. A good thing to keep in mind when attacking is piece coordination. Getting multiple pieces to attack the same target is a very simple but powerful idea that can overload your opponents defenses!
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Finally I'd imply like to reiterate that I am not a particularly strong or experienced player so I can very likely have problems within my analysis. Nonetheless I hope I could help, and writing up this Analysis was a good exercise.
Cheers!
Very nice and interesting to see all the different views about this one game.
Thank you all, I will take a look at these studies! I appreciate the feedback.

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