Rapid Chess Arena May 16th

 I'm on the road to 1000 elo and I got a lot closer after today's arena.

I made one blunder going Be3 instead of Ne3. Ne3 was more forcing, but we ended up trading pieces anyway. I made sure to grab any free piece that was given to me, and I won by checkmate.

Stockfish says I made several mistakes, like trying to attack with my Queen when there was no attack I can make. Black brought their Queen over by my King, but I just kept my cool before getting checkmate.

I made several blunders in this game, first moving my rook onto an open file instead of pushing my pawn to lock the center. After I played Rfc8 I thought I should have done Nxd4 too but I was too focused on trying to do some kind of trap. I was completely lost after move 25, but I had the bishop's pair so I played the game out. White hung their rook, allowing me to promote one of my pawns and win the game.

I made a mistake early and missed a free pawn, I play The Ruy Lopez to pin the knight on c6 and I did nothing to take advantage of that. I won this game because I played my rooks more actively, plating my Queen and a rook on the 7th rank, which led me to checkmating Black.

This was a strange game with a weird opening. I was winning the game but I blundered and let White checkmate me on the back rank. I was looking at winning material when I should have been putting them in check to keep the game going.

I made hung my Queen when I went Qc6+, but White missed they could have just taken my Queen. At least managed my time better than my opponent, who ran their clock out when I still had a minute.

I made a blunder when I castled instead of sacking my bishop to open up the center. I have to work on being able to tell when I should do such a thing. I was at a disadvantage for the rest of the game after that, because I hung my other bishop after that blunder. I made Black work for their checkmate.

I really don't understand why the computer wants me to sack my bishop for a pawn, even a pass pawn that's on the 6th rank...

Well now that I look at the lines taking my bishop with their Queen does leave The White King open and unprotected. Stockfish really didn't like Rxc4 either, the engine says I should have offered a Queen trade instead. If White played it right, they would have won material. Instead, they ended up either offering a Queen trade and they resigned after I promoted a pawn.