Canadian Chess, Eh

Here's the full 3rd game I played:
[Event "KW September Fast Regular"][Site "KW Chess Club"]
[Date "2014.09.30"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Gareau, Don"]
[Black "Mallon, Christopher"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "1738"]
[BlackElo "1767"]
[Annotator "C. Mallon"]
[PlyCount "82"]


1. Nf3 Nf6 2. g3 e6 3. d3 b6 4. e4 Bb7 5. Bg2 Be7 6. O-O O-O 7. Re1 c5 8. Nbd2
d6 9. b3 Nbd7 10. Bb2 Qc7 11. h4 Rfe8 12. Nf1 h6 {Okay, this looks like a
decent move, it will allow me to attempt to trade dark-square bishops. However,
I didn't notice that right away in the game and this was a totally soft move
that I played.} 13. N1h2 Nh7 14. h5 $2 {I'm not sure what he intended here,
but this will be a permanent weakness once a Knight returns to f6.} Bf6 $1 {
I'm quite happy to trade my worthless dark-squared-bishop for his only good
minor piece!} 15. Bxf6 Nhxf6 16. Nh4 $6 {So he's obviously intending to play
f4, but this just looks horrible, two knights stuck on the h-file doing
absolutely nothing. Nd2 was probably far better - it covers e4 which becomes
weak later, and he has the c4 square to consider as well. All three of my
minor pieces are superior to White's now, and my Queen is in a nice spot as
well.} d5 17. f4 $6 {I know he's trying to create counterplay, threatening to
play e5, but before he had just one main weakness on h5, now he's got another
on g3 and his king safety is spiraling down.} dxe4 18. dxe4 Rad8 19. Qe2 e5 {
I didn't really want to play this move however there was no other option -
Many of White's problems would go away if I allowed him to play e5 himself,
and I have to capitalize on him while he's weak.} 20. f5 Nb8 {Heading for b5
or d5. I also considered playing c4?! here, sacrificing a pawn to destroy his
queenside pawn structure. With his Knights being so horrible and e4 already so
weak it's unlikely the c-pawns would survive for long. Any response such as
Rc1 or b4 would be met with .. c3 and horrible things will be happening to
White very soon.} 21. Rad1 Rxd1 22. Rxd1 Rd8 23. Rxd8+ Qxd8 24. Qd3 $6 {Yes ..
Qd5 was a huge threat but this move loses the h-pawn. c3 may have been worth a
shot followed by g4.} Qxd3 25. cxd3 Nxh5 {Finally! I have converted my dynamic
advantages into a material advantage! Combined with my vastly superior pawn
structure and his worthless Bishop I should have great chances in the endgame.}
26. Kf2 Nf6 {I had other options like Ba6 but I wanted the b8 Knight to come
back into the game via c6 and not be stuck on d7 defending e5.} 27. N4f3 Nfd7
28. Ke3 Nc6 29. a3 Ba6 30. Kd2 Nd4 31. Nxd4 exd4 {Taking this way ensures that
the a-b pawns don't take up on dark squares giving his bishop a route on that
side. Plus his Knight is going to try to get into the game at some point and I
want to kill it as soon as it does.} 32. Nf3 f6 33. Bh3 Ne5 {I want to trade
into what is (in my opinion) a won ending. I also have a 10-minute time
advantage. If he tries to play defensively with Ne1 he'll be stuck with a
terrible knight for a long time.} 34. Nxe5 fxe5 35. Bg4 Kf7 36. Bh5+ Kf6 37.
Bd1 g6 {I want to get my bishop actively in the game to help force my king in
behind his pawns, and Bc8-d7-e8-h5 seemed to take too long. This opens a much
quicker route although Bc8 probably should have come first.} 38. fxg6 Kxg6 39.
Bg4 Kf6 40. Bd1 $2 {Abandoning the crucial h3-c8 diagonal. Kg5 is probably
more correct as a follow-up move but this is the move that guaranteed my win.}
Bc8 41. Kc2 Kg5 {The game is won. Bg4 will force White off the d1-h5 diagonal.
White could try 42. Bf3 Bg4 43. Bg2 Bh5 44. Bh3 but I had a huge time
advantage by this point as well. Black can probably sac his bishop to win the
g3 pawn and White in turn will have to sac his for the h-pawn as his King
can't get over in time. Then it's a King battle, but Black is up a pawn and
has two pawn tempo moves to White's one, meaning the d-pawn will eventually
die.} 0-1


Overall I'm relatively pleased. Only one "soft" move which turned out to be good. However I still need to learn to be more forceful - I took advantage of my opponent's poor placement of his Knights and his h-pawn, but he made those mistakes on his own, I didn't create any imbalances myself just took advantage. Which is good, I'm just always thinking about next steps.