Yes, your tactics were not good enough. Some of the available tactics were quite complex and above what a 1600 is going to spot in a blitz game, but it should have been obvious that 12. ... bf5 was much better than be6. That is a move that you should make by reflex, even in a very short time control blitz game. And at move 15, if you spot that nge5 is bad, bf5 should look very attractive even if you can't see everything that happens after bf5 e4 nd4 kg3. Or you could reason that if the knight was protected, e4 wouldn't be possible, and therefore look at 15. ...h5, which is also crushing.
Blitz games are discouraging sometimes. Look for lessons you can absorb, like 12. ... bf5, but don't beat yourself up about not spotting every tactic and letting one slip away. It happens.
Hi all,
This game was not the first where I managed to obtain a large advantage in the opening, before squandering it in the middle game. I'd like to know where I went wrong. Were my tactics not good enough? Did I not have the right focus when I was attacking my opponent's uncastled king? I've included my own commentary on the game, explaining to the best of my knowledge the mistakes I made.