A Crushing Defeat

In this game, I, black, am crushed. I don't know where I started to go wrong though.

gosh....... that was a trainwreck for you..........

 sorry, i'm not good at annalyzing games so i cant help you....

You weren't able to take advantage of his pawn structure, if you had the bishops that would have helped.

12... Nf6 seemed like a bad move, from there the knight can't do much and it blocks the queen from moving to the K-side. Either exchange knights or maybe set up on f4.

17... Re6 probably would have been better, making your rooks active.

Just a couple comments based on your annotations:

  After 6.Be3 you wrote "Why?"; the idea is that after you trade bishops, white will have an open file.  His rook will then be developed immediately after castling.  You felt the pain on move 22 when he started to double his rooks up.

  For 9. Bb3 you wrote "this makes no sense".  White doesn't want to take your bishop and open your f file, just like you did for him.  But if he ignores your threat to trade bishops, afterwards he will end up with three different groups of pawns,  two of them doubled on the e file without support.  By backing up, he could retake with the "a" pawn, and keep his pawn structure intact.

"Pritchard" outclasses me, move 26 would have caught me napping, but white's 6th and 9th moves seemed clear to me.

6.Be3 - Because beginniners like to double pawns! After 6...Bxe3 fxe3 he has an extra central pawn and the half-open f-file for his rooks. That puts him in an excellent position to launch a middlegame kingside attack.  :)

9.Bb3!? - He wanted to trade off your bishop and he had two choices: (1) Bxe6 helps you open your f-file and gives you more central pawns (2) Bb3 lets you double his queenside pawns. Bb3 is consistent with his other choice--he's preparing to attack. If you survived to the endgame, his weak b-pawns would be a disadvantage.

25...Qe7?? - walks into... 26.Rxg6! fxg6 27.Qxe7 winning your queen.

So now you know:

  1. When you double pawns, you also centralize them and half-open a file.

  2. Don't walk into discovered attacks!! 

Which lesson do you think is more important? 

19. g6 - "only move to avoid checkmate"

i saw:

19.  Nh5

as another way to avoid it, maybe less passive? puts the question to his queen, protects your g7 square, and opens your 6th rank for queen.

would this have been a better move anyone?

...ryan 

19. g6 - "only move to avoid checkmate" i saw: 19.  Nh5  -- invertebrae

You're right, there were several ways to avoid an immediate checkmate. But if 19...Nh5 20.Qg4 now White (a) is threatening to capture the knight and (b) has setup a discovered attack against Black's queen. Black will lose material.

This position is hard to defend because Black made the strategic error of opening White's f-file for him on move 6. White's rook became a dangerous force.

Just curious here but if the f-file is opened for white should black consider a queenside castle for king safety?

Hmm... nice idea! Perhaps Black should have delayed castling until he knew the best square for his king, and instead have tried to actively trade pieces. Maybe 7...Na5 8.Bb3 Nxb3 9.axb3 Bg4 and White's kingside attack is defused. Also we're closer to an endgame and we know who that benefits.