I decided not to annotate this one as its just too short.  Personally, I think he resigns WAY too soon, especially at our level.  But it is still a 15 10 game, and I guess he doesn't feel like trying to grind it out. 



Anyway, I will either post one of my tournament games (quick rated, 26g/3) tomorrow night, or I do have another chess.com game to post if I'm too tired tomorrow or I don't write my moves down correctly :) 

One final thought, I think you will see from looking through the games I've posted is, for all my flaws and mistakes, I've had a lead in development almost every game I've played.  For the record, I DO play two specific openings (or at least, that's the plan).  Every white game I play 1) e4, and usually try to go for some type of Spanish opening 2) Nf3 3) Bb5.  When I play black, its always the Sicilian.  But I assure you that I really don't KNOW any openings, and I certainly don't have any variations memorized or anything like that.  This advice has been stressed in my "Advanced Beginner" class at the local chess club I play at, but I try to do these three things every time in the opening:

1) Control the center squares (the 4 in the very middle.  Occupying with pawns usually helps).

2) Develop your minor pieces first.  I would also add to that knights before bishops is usually better,  because it takes your knight two moves to threaten your opponent, where your bishop can do it in 1, so why not move the knight first and get it closer?  Also, it seems like bishops get harassed more frequently when developed to good squares initially.

3) Castle! I would also add, as a general rule, to not disrupt the pawn structure in front of your king for as long as possible.  It just seems to invite trouble, and there are definitely players out there who might be weak otherwise who have all sorts of combos memorized when that area gets weakened. 

(So, not to make this more complicated than it needs to be, but I would say a good #4 rule, as we see in the above game, is to keep your Queen in the back until development is complete.  It just gives your opponent too much counterplay.  Unless I have a tactic that wins me material on the spot, my Queen is typically very inactive until a file has opened up and some pieces have been exchanged.  I think the game above is a good example of this).

It really is as simple is that.  If you just make sure to do these things, I think you'll see your results improve.  I know I have!

Books I'm Reading:
Winning Chess Strategy for Kids by Jeff Coakley - Great book, don't let the "for kids" turn you off!  It covers all sorts of topics, including many positional concepts I knew nothing about.  Also does a good job of interspersing tactical problems with strategic concepts.  Extremely good book.

A First Book of Morphy - Franco del Rosario - I'm not 100% sure I'd recommend this or not.  The games are obviously instructive, and I do think that Morphy is a good player to study early because the positions are not complex (it a LOT of tactics and mating combinations, combined with rapid development relative to his opponents), but this book is kind of weak on analysis, especially his opponents' terrible moves.  Also, Morphy would play a lot of games where he would spot people a pawn or a knight, which the book doesn't tell you.  So every once in a while, there will be a rook move which seems "impossible" until you realize that the knight wasn't there to begin with.  Just needlessly confusing.

Silman's Complete Endgame Course by Jeremy Silman - This book is good, but it depends what kind of learner you are.  If you like to have things explained, he does an excellent job.  But I wish the book had more examples and problems to work through.  Also, if you are a beginner like me, read much farther in the book than he recommends if you want to learn anything.  The beginner stuff is way too basic, and I'm going to guess if you've ever read a "general knowledge" chess book, its already been covered.  I've ordered Pandolfini's Endgame Course, and while I've heard that there are a lot of errors, its basically a problems book, which I think suits what I'm looking for better (confidence in my execution of endgames that I should win).