Hello,
So I just finished a correspondence game (I played as black) and I was hoping to get insights from the community about moves 17 and 27.
Move 17:
I notice that whenever my opponent pushes the pawn forward to create some tension with my pawns, I'm generally not sure whether to push that pawn or capture it. In this case, clearly my decision to push was wrong (as pointed out by computer), but my thinking was that if I capture the f4 pawn and land my knight on e4, white can just take it out with his light square bishop. And given that I don't have a light square bishop, I thought I should grab some control of the light squares and have a pawn in the enemy territory.
Move 27:
I admit I calculated for a long time here. I DID consider Rd8 with the idea of deflecting the bishop away from the diagonal to create some kingside attack. However, I didn't play it because I noticed that after my opponent plays Bxc6 and I go Qe5, I didn't see what to do next and my opponent restored his/her material. Of course, the computer points out I should go with the g5 - g4 idea, which completely went over my head. So what should I do in the future to "see" these ideas??
Thanks for your time.
EDIT: Feel free to comment about my other moves as well! I'm trying to learn and improve as much as possible.