Feeling cramped in the Najdorf I played this game recently at a tournament, and lost pretty decisively. I thought about it a bit, and I think it's representative of something that happens somewhat often in my games when I play the Najdorf: I get really cramped and white launches a successful Kingside attack. 

More concretely:


Is my assessment correct - that misplaying the Najdorf and not creating enough space led to my loss?
Are there any particular moves that stand out as blunders?
How could I have played this differently?


Game as follows:

[fen ""]
1. e4 c5 
2. Nf3 d6
3. d4 cxd4
4. Nxd4 Nf6
5. Nc3 a6
6. Be3 e6 {I don't know any theory past this point.}
7. f3 Be7 
8. Qd2 Bd7 {Premonitions of a Kingside attack, but I feel safe at the moment}
9. Bc4 O-O
10. O-O-O Ne8 {I was trying to launch a Kingside attack myself, and get my knight to a better square eventually}
11. g4 Nc7
12. h4 Bxh4 {Maybe I was too greedy here - it ended up allowing him to clear out some clutter and really get his pieces working together}
13. g5 Bg3
14. f4 e5
15. Nf5 Bxf5
16. exf5 exf4
17. Bxf4 Bxf4
18. Qxf4 Re8
19. g6 hxg6
20. fxg6 1-0


I resigned here.
Let's forget for a moment that it's a Najdorf.

You were cramped because you never gave yourself space. Instead, you spent a lot of time wandering around with your knight and bishop and opening lines against your own king. You didn't develop. You didn't counter-attack.

When White castled on the opposite side to you, they were making a simple declaration: I will checkmate you unless you checkmate me first.  This is absolutely typical in the Najdorf and it requires Black to carefully balance counter-attack and defence. Attacking on the queenside usually requires ...b5 (kicking the bishop with tempo), ...b4 (kicking the knight with tempo) and ...Rc8 (aiming at the king).

There's a good lecture by Jonathan Schrantz at the St Louis Chess Club that covers a lot of the Najdorf-specific ideas. ...b5 and ...d5 are the big breaks that you need to try to get in.