This was my first game of 3D chess, and I speculated before the game
that some of the standard chess principles might not hold up in 3D.
Specifically, I wondered the following:

1) Should rooks stay on the sidelines in 3D chess? One reason rooks
survive until the endgame in a normal chess match is because they are
such a pain to move around. There is a lot more space in 3D, so I
thought getting the rooks out early might be effective.

2) Is controlling the center really that important? The most direct
assault against the black pieces seemed to be on the 3rd board. I was
not convinced of the importance of controlling the center board.

3) Can black really withstand an early assault by white? I was
curious if white's first-move advantage was greater in 3D chess, again
because there are so many more options. I suspected that black might
be hard pressed to defend against a determined attack.

In this game, Wil schooled me on all 3 of my questions. I believe I
lost by not following good chess principles, and this game is
instructive for that reason. I will take you through the game from my
perspective - I'm no chess master, but I think I can effectively
demonstrate what was happening in this game. I'd love to hear
analysis from anyone else who wants to critique the game. I am white.

1. N2g3

I had looked carefully at the squares before the game, and determined
that 2f7 and 3f7 are the weakest squares for black. In normal chess,
a good black player can easily fend off a white attack against f7. Is
this true in 3D chess as well? My plan is to get the knight to 3g5,
which will aid the queen and rooks in their assault.

1. ..B2b7
2. Q3f3

I didn't really think that the queen would be effective on this
square. My plan is to get her to 1h5. I was surprised by black's
next move.

2. ..B3c6

Attacking the queen. Black wants to stop this attack before it even
starts. But I was already on my way to a different square.

3. Q1h5 2g6

Another surprise. Moving pawns seemed to be a little questionable to
me, because the king's safety can be easily compromised with so much
space to get at him. But black's pawn move turns out to be very
effective throughout the game. I have no choice but to move the queen
again.

4. Q1h7 R1c8
5. N3g5 N3h6

Black's move defends the 3f7 square, and attacks the queen yet again.
At this point, it's impossible to keep up the attack.

6. Q1d3 B3g7
7. R3a3 R1d8

It is painfully obvious by now that my queen's exposure is preventing
any white development. But I was still determined to get something
rolling with the heavy artillery.

8. Q2e3 2f6
9. N2g7?

Here is my first major blunder. I was still hanging on to the idea
that my knight and queen could effectively get something going
underneath black's king. I saw that black's rook could harrass the
knight, but I failed to see black's correct response.

9. ..Q2d7

Winning the knight.

10. Rx3a7 Qx2g7
11. R2a7

And in attacking the queen, I have a mating idea which black can
easily stop. If black were to foolishly move the queen out of harm's
way, white wins with 12. Q2e7++

11. ..R2d7
12. R2a8 N1c8

My threat was 13. Q2e8++. I was expecting black to block the rook
with either the knight or the rook, and I was confused by the knight
move at first. But 12. ..N1c8 cleverly attacks my rook and defends
the 2e8 square simultaneously.

13. R3a8+ N3d8
14. R2g1

My second major blunder. I studied the board carefully before this
move, trying to decide if I could get away with having the queen and
rook on the same diagonal for a move. I desperately needed some
reinforcements, and I concluded that 2g1 would give my rook the most
mobility between the 2nd and 3rd board. But black found a way to
exploit my carelessness.

14. ..B3c3+!
15. 2d2 B2d4

And now my knight deficit has turned into a rook deficit. In a normal
2D game, I could have resigned here. But I believed that a draw was
still possible in this game, so I continued.

16. Q2g3 Bx2g1
17. Qx2g1 Q1h7
18. N1a3 R1h8
19. B1f4 N2h4

And here, the black knight is attacking my bishop. I wasn't sure what
black was trying to accomplish on that side of the board. I opted to
get the bishop into the game on the queen side, hopefully to help my
rook take the pinned knight on 3d8, and I let my pawn on 1h2 go.

20. B1e3 Qx1h2
21. Q2e1 N2f5
22. B1b6 2c7
23. B3d4 R12h7
24. Q3e1

Another blunder, giving black's knight a fork.

24. ..N3f3
25. Q3a1 N1g1

Here I was worried about black's rook moving to 1h1, winning my bishop
and allowing black's queen to attack my king. My knight went to 2c3,
and would enter 1e3 to guard the bishop on the following move. But it
turned out I had bigger problems.

26. N2c3 Nx3d4
27. Qx3d4? Q3e1+!
28. K1d1 Qx2d2++

And there you have it. I had set up a similar mate earlier in the
game, and I completely missed this one. I blundered several times
during this game, but a lot of my problems stemmed from getting the
heavy pieces out early, which kept me from developing because I was
continually harrassed by black's forces. My assault on the f7 sqaures
never got off the ground. And my lack of respect for the middle board
cost me a lot of space that made it difficult to move. Black's pawns
at 2f6 and 2g6 kept my queen out of where she wanted to be.

I learned a lot from this game, and I hope it was instructive to
others. I would appreciate any opinions or analysis on this game.