Recap: Marshall Monday U1800 Round 4

First: A Puzzle

White to move and win. Anybody over 500 - 600 elo should spot this in under 10 seconds. Somehow, I didn't. Embarrassing!

The Good

• I'm getting good positions out of the opening. My opponents often don't know the main lines of my chosen openings, playing "normal developing moves" that I have the chance to punish.
• If I lose, its because I hung onto a losing endgame, rather than blundering a piece in a bad combination, or outright hanging pieces.
• I'm often recognizing critical positions (which I note as such on my score sheet), and I make often the right move (i.e. engine's top move).

Even though the fact that I missed such an obvious tactic is forehead-slappingly embarrassing - the fact that I got such a position - against someone rated 400 points higher than me (based on my live rating) - is promising!

If I keep on this current path, eventually these games will start converting to draws and wins.

The Bad

I am recognizing when I have a tactic, but then picking the wrong move / miscalculating. Tonight, I missed what would be a 1200 (or less??) rated puzzle here on Lichess.

This happened in my game last week in Chicago as well. I had a winning position - but didn't calculate deep / broad enough - and chose the lame (losing) move.

In these long time control games, I think I'm getting too caught up in long-term plans. I don't look for tactical fireworks too early (even when I'm playing a sharp opening?!), because:

1. I don't consider inspect *every single* check / capture / threat.
2. I think too much about the resulting position rather than just trying to find something that wins a full piece.

Also, I need to work on my practical rook-and-pawn endgames. I've been neglecting those in my daily puzzles, focusing on pawn-only endgames instead.

The Game