As a beginner, how do I learn to win in "won" positions? I'm fairly new to chess (~3 months) and I have almost entirely been playing on chess.com where my rating sits somewhere between 1000 and 1100. Recently, I decided to sign up for lichess.org, where I was placed at ~1650 as I haven't played many games yet, and unsurprisingly I lose quite often.
But facing higher rated players made me realise I don't know how to win a game of chess.
On chess.com, the people I face will almost always trade pieces if offered, so if I have a material advantage it is very easy to trade off all other pieces then staircase checkmate and win. Facing higher rated players on lichess made me realise that if they don't cooperate like this I have no idea what to do. I know I sound pretty stupid here but somehow I have just never had a game like this before.
In this game, by the end Stockfish says it was -3.1 (I played the black pieces) when my opponent lost on time, but if they didn't, I have no idea how I was going to win if they didn't at least trade queens.
[Event &quot;Rated Rapid game&quot;]
[FEN &quot;&quot;]
[StartFlipped &quot;1&quot;]
[Date &quot;2020.12.13&quot;]
[White &quot;&quot;]
[Black &quot;Me&quot;]
[Result &quot;0-1&quot;]
[UTCDate &quot;2020.12.13&quot;]
[UTCTime &quot;08:02:31&quot;]
[WhiteElo &quot;1655&quot;]
[BlackElo &quot;1645&quot;]
[WhiteRatingDiff &quot;-6&quot;]
[BlackRatingDiff &quot;+10&quot;]
[Variant &quot;Standard&quot;]
[TimeControl &quot;600+5&quot;]
[ECO &quot;C48&quot;]
[Opening &quot;Four Knights Game: Spanish Variation, Classical Variation&quot;]
[Termination &quot;Time forfeit&quot;]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bb5 Bc5 5. O-O a6 6. Ba4 b5 7. Bb3 O-O 8. a3 Bb7 9. Re1 Ng4 10. Rf1 Nd4 11. Ba2 Nxf3+ 12. Qxf3 Qh4 13. h3 Nf6 14. b4 Bd4 15. Bb2 Bxe4 16. Qe2 Bxc3 17. Bxc3 Qg5 18. f3 Bxc2 19. d4 Qg6 20. dxe5 Bd3 21. Qb2 Bxf1 22. Rxf1 Ne8 23. f4 Qb6+ 24. Bd4 Qc6 25. Rc1 Qh6 26. Be3 d6 27. exd6 Nxd6 28. Rxc7 Rac8 29. Ra7 Ra8 30. Qf2 Rxa7 31. Bxa7 Qf6 32. Bd4 Qh6 33. f5 Qc1+ 34. Kh2 Nc4 0-1

So I'm not really looking for somebody to tell me the best continuation of this game so I could win, but is this a problem with playing too passively? As in, &quot;I should be actively attacking the king more&quot; is my assumption, but I'm unsure how to learn about how to do that. I came across Vukovic's Art of Attack in Chess when searching online but according to the /r/chess wiki that book is for 1800-2000 rated players. So my question is what should I be focusing on to be able to win in these positions?
There are two key things you need to do.
The first is to know how to win a won endgame. You do that by studying endgames. That will do two important things for you. Apart from teaching you how to win a won endgame, it will also teach you to recognise which endgame positions are won, and which are drawn, despite your material advantage. That way when you are in a winning middlegame you know what kind of endgame you are aiming for.
The second really important thing to do is to keep on fighting. The aim is not to get a winning middlegame position, it is to win the game. To that end a winning middlegame position is just one stop on the way to your real desired destination.
If you are driving to visit friends or family and you stop two thirds of the way there for petrol (or gas if you live in the US) you don't stop because you think you have arrived. You carry on after the stop, in just the same way as you did before the stop, except that you are no longer worried that you are going to run out of fuel (or not win the game).
This tendency to sit back once you have a theoretically winning position is something which affects all players. You have to fight it by trying even harder to not let your opponent back into the game and to win it yourself. Perhaps one good way of doing this is by starting each think about your next move by asking yourself &quot;Why did my opponent do that? What are they trying to do? How can I stop them?&quot;