I personally believe that there is simply no way for a quick end to the war in 1914. Not with the massive gap between military technology and doctrine.
The Germans may have come close to Paris in OTL, but the French field armies were far from being defeated. The Russians surprised the Germans in Prussia at first, but the simple fact is that defending armies in 1914 had an overwhelming advantage over the attackers. This is shown most obviously in the Serb and Galician fronts; the Russians were conpletely smashed when they attacked Austro-Hungarian positions, but it turned into a disaster for the latter when they counter-attacked, while the KuK armies lost to the Serbs decisively, and when the Serbs launched an offensive, they were utterly routed. Hell, the Western Front is just as much of an example since the Entente failed to retake French lands until the later stages of the war.