Breaking 1500 USCF

This is the game that elevated my rating past 1500- it was the third round of the Marshall Chess Club under 1600 tournament. The time control was G/40 and I was significantly behind on time for almost the entire game. The game was certainly not mistake-free, but it was the first game in a while where I felt my work on positional concepts paid off in a significant way.

Any and all comments on this game are welcome- I'm trying to improve all facets of my game and would appreciate advice on anything pertinent. I hope to get to class B this year if I can and feel like I could stand to improve both my tactical awareness and my formulation of strategic plans, but any feedback helps!

Edit: My rating in the diagram says 1018, but it was actually 1408 at the time of the game (now it sits at 1551)

Aha nice positional game!

Why thank you, not every day that I get to use the positional concepts I read about- it only gets tougher the higher one climbs on the rating ladder!

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That's an interesting move- made me think of The famous saying "When you see a good move, sit on your hands and look for a better one". I think I was so intent on controlling e5 to keep White from opening the board for his bishops that I didn't want to move my knight if possible. Bc5 is one of those tricky zugzwang moves that I always have trouble finding; at least once in the tournament I had to remind myself not to fall into the mindset of always feeling like I have to do something aggressive on every move. I'm just looking at it on my phone so I don't have a board here but am I right in saying that your line guarantees a new queen? It seems to win at least a rook. To be honest I never even considered Bc5 or the possibility of attacking the e3 pawn during the game- that's the kind of move I'll need to find at the next level. This was certainly helpful- thanks for the kind words and the analysis!

IMO, white's 20. gxf5 deserves a ? for sure.  No reason to let you undouble your kingside pawns there.  

Good game, I enjoyed your commentary.

Thank you, and I agree that gxf5 wasn't a great move. My opponent might have been hoping I would recapture with the rook, or perhaps he was hoping for more space for his queen... It seemed like a wasted move to me at the time, as his queen+bishop battery is shut down by the pawn advance anyway and my pawn structure improves as you mentioned.