My First OTB Game Since the Start of the Pandemic

For me this is no secret. In the battle between my desire to be lazy and the need to calculate often laziness wins. This is often why I prefer positions which are either dry, endgames, and/or are solid, positional struggles. Open or closed does not really matter to me so much so as I have harmonious pieces and pressure on bits of the opponents camp. So link to the study here for my full analysis, but I wanted to a few positions in the game.
Position One.

I will admit, I was in new territory in the opening by move 5. Bc4. I spend very little time on openings, and paying is often how I learn them past a quick video, a free Chessable course, or a quick glance through a database to see what people play. And, playing entirely online since changing repertoires has left me with large holes in my knowledge. In this case, I know one line in the Grand Prix Attack, that Black is shooting for f5 to open up the Kingside, and the all Bishops on c4 dream of sacrifice tactics.
With, this knowledge I though stopping e5 and f5 would be imperative given my lack of development. Consumed with this though I considered b5 Bb3, Nxb3; e6 f5; and Bg4. I saw b5 Bb3 and b5 Bxf7+. Saw no problems in these lines. Turned to e6. Saw that this is not forcing but that White's forcing were generally alright. I did not like this position though.

Which is foolish as I have played out the position, early f5s in fact help black by developing the c8 bishop to a fantastic square. But in most lines trading the d4 Knight for White's light squared bishop is far more desirable than maybe preventing f5 which is not a threat until later in the game.

So when I came to developing moves like Bg4 and Nf6 I was unsure of the position. Nf6 loses a pawn to Nxd4 cxd, Nxd4. But Bg4 loses so, so much more, in fact developing moves appear to be bad for Black in this position. You need to prepare development with b5 and e6 so that nothing hangs (cough cough) and so that Black makes a meaningful fight for the initiative. Also, take a moment to calculate White's best response after 8. ... Bg4??

If you thought Bxf7+, you correct and you saw what took me five minutes to miss. (generally I hate being in time trouble so I match time spent on my move to how long my opponent has spent and I have to move when our times match)
There is no good response here by I chose not to take the bishop and instead moved to f8 because I wanted as many hands on deck so that maybe I could recover the pawn later.

However, Black now has three weaknesses: 1. down material, 2. the hanging g4 bishop, 3) the d6 square. I however chose to not see even though it appears I have a hanging pawn that liquidation of the f3 is critical because it and the ligthsquared bishop are White's best pieces. This is why in the face of knowing this I choose instead to guard the b7 pawn inorder not to go further down on material. This fails miserably. It in facts loses more material, with the discovered attach Nxd4.

Because my opponent missed the discovery, I chose to quickly eliminate White's best minor pieces for my problematic ones, and try as I might I do not understand Bxf3 is worse than Nxf3.

Maybe someone can explain, but maybe its just me over estimating White's Bishop and underestimating White's Knight. However, I wanted both gone and Bxf3 did that and cause pawn structure damage.

Honestly, the trades are greatly to my favor, but the path to make more progress was unclear. But I thought a King on e7 and using everything to cover the e5 and f5 squares would be enough not to win but maybe frustrate, which is my only goal at this point. Mind you not to upset my opponent, but just to make it as hard as possible to covert the advantage. In a few moves this plan proves successful.

This position was peculiar to me, while I agree that trading pawns should generically be bad I thought that both dxe dxe and dxe fxe would be helpful as my bishop loses obstacles and I lose my doubled pawn, which is good, right? And this is the position I saw.

A queen trade is good for Black and this allows the rooks to work together once the Black king moves. Stockfish this that ...Kf718.dxc5 dxe5 19.fxe5 Bxe5 is better and maybe, but my felt exposed and it didn't feel like a fort that I was hoping for.

I was really happy to see this position because, while White is better I have a clear plan and the time to do it. Plus White's King is look exposed, and his attack is over.

So, here we hit the position that I thought had a shot at drawing the game or with an insane amount of luck a swindle. Here, White is better but must be patient when Black can start active operations with g5 ideas and opening the f, g, and h files to attack and may isolate White's King. Either way it is likely necessary that I avoid trading for the rest of the game. In fact these active operations with g5 are my own plan my opponent stated this was the plan that worried him and the computer liked it.

But final question, in this position what do you choose attack on the White King with g5 or passive defense with Rd7? I choose poorly despite knowing the correct move for over ten moves; simply put I lost my nerve.

Anyway, I intend to post an analysis of all of my OTB game from the Club on Thursdays and Saturdays as form of study.