This was a loss you had the winning move for. When James blundered with 22.Bxe4, the reply fxe4 wins you a piece; 22...Nxc4 grabbed a pawn on the other wing and walked into a mating check instead. The Dutch did its job — you were level out of the opening at move 17 — and the game came apart in two places: a long think, and a fast grab.
17...Qb6 — the two-minute move that let the rook in
Level at move 17, you spent almost two minutes and chose 17...Qb6, and it cost most of that safety: after 18.Rd6 the rook plants on the sixth and White is up nearly two pawns. The move that held the balance was Qxb2 — taking the pawn the queen was already eyeing — Qxb2 a4 Nf6 a5 Qe5 f4, and it's +0.2, dead level. The pattern is the familiar one: your longest think of the game produced its loosest move. A long think that ends on a quiet square usually means the search never asked "what's forcing?" — and here the forcing move, grabbing b2, was the one that worked.
22...Nxc4 — the capture on the wrong side of the board
The game turned here, twice. James's 22.Bxe4 was a blunder: the bishop is hanging on e4, and fxe4 simply wins it — fxe4 b3 Bf5 Nxe4 Nd7 f3 and you're a clean piece up at -2.3. Instead 22...Nxc4 took a queenside pawn and left the check open: 23.Bd5+, and after Kh7 Bxc4 White is +5.4 and winning. Two pawns were on offer that move — the one on e4, by recapture, winning the bishop, and the one on c4, by the knight, winning nothing. You took the smaller one. This is the habit that keeps costing you: when something is there to be captured, look at every capture before you decide, and take the one that wins material, not the one nearest your hand.
Phase notes
The knight never found a home — 13...Nc5, back to 14...Nd7, out to 21...Nb6, and finally 22...Nxc4 into the check. A knight that moves four times without landing is usually telling you to trade it or bring it back; on b6 it was already a target for b3, where Ne5 was the square that kept it working.
Profile check
Is this the same mistake as recent games? Yes — it's the reply-and-capture check again, the one that's cost you before: playing the move nearest your hand instead of looking at what can be captured right now. 22...Nxc4 is the clean example — a pawn grab while a whole piece hung on e4 for the taking. Same habit, still the one to break.
What to drill next
- This position — Black to move, White has just played 22.Bxe4. Find fxe4 and win the bishop; beat the engine from here three times running.
- Hanging pieces — the drill for spotting the free capture before you play anything else.
Before you play a natural-looking move, look at every capture on the board first — the winning move is often just taking the piece that's hanging.