Everyone knows early queen activity is bad, because it (she?) gets harrassed easily by other pieces.
But in this game -
lichess.org/9pB4CibOGIVP - that doesn't seem to be the case. Up to somewhere move 4 or 5 I think I did well, but after that the white queen was just too comfortable, it remained active and white kept generating threats. How could I do better?
Not a big fan of 5... na5?
You defended the c7 square, and it's not losing, but it was not the time to defend. It makes things roughly equal.
It was the time to counter attack.
5... Nc5 is a bit stronger. You just continue to have better development and more space this way.
5...Nc5 6 Qxd5 loses a pawn.
Black did well in the game.
I considered both, but in both scenarios white can win a central pawn by Qxd6 and exchange queens by force if they want so. After that, my advantage in development would be minimal.
I think you did well with 5...Nf6. You could also have played 5...Nxc3 intending 6...Nc6 and 7...e5.
Not bringing your queen early to board is considered a principle in what comes about piece development. I think that you had lots of ways to punish that queen right in the beginning - which you sort of did a little later. Consider 3..Nc6 (intending to play 4...e6 at the same time threatening to retake the e4 pawn with nxe4 at some point). That way you would earn some more tempi over her which i suppose is what you were looking for. By moving your knight (f6 - e4) you've moved that piece twice right in the beginning (which also breaks one of those development principles) wasting a tempo and due to that I'm not sure if that was the best idea although it doesn't seem so wrong... Anyway, taking knight on c3 as mentioned above would be great move. On top of everything you should notice that you had the better chances, have you seen 27...Qxg2+ for example?
I would play Nc6 instead of Na6 on move 6.
Black cant castle after that but can win a piece, or a tempo if white decides wisely not to go for Nc7+.
It seems risky but I would definitely go for this if I were black.