Defense Against NM


So I can learn about "keeping up the pressure" only by playing more games? As for my time spending- yea, you're right I was overthinking a lot because of the fact that I was playing a titled player. And I was able to play her because she was streaming on Twitch () and I challenged her for a match.
I recently played against NM Diana Mats (@Chess_Lynx) and tried my best to defend against her:
I was lucky she chose Ponziani, an opening I'm quite aware of. Tried as much as I could to not open up the position, but well...once I realised I was quite behind on the clock, I started making mistakes.
Reason for sharing: I'm particularly looking for the chess geniuses to point out my mistakes. And especially, tell me how should I have continued the midgame. At one point, I was completely clueless on how to proceed. I did watch the game analysis later, but some ideas which the engine is suggesting is still unclear to me. I've noticed this pattern in my previous games as well- once the position becomes too complicated, I start making mistakes because I literally have no idea how to proceed. Every other move seems bad to me.