Understanding the best move

I try to post my progress regularly how it is going. My goal is to achieve 1200 until the end of the year. I feel somehow this goal should not be too hard to get too, but since i was over 1000 i lost a lot of points due to tired playing and tilt. It frustrates me that im just too dumb in this moments. I thought im decent intelligent (no genius either!) but somehow it feels chess breaks my brain. I studied informatics and see myself as a somewhat analytical guy, but i can't get my head around it.

So if you wanna hear how it is going, and see me raging, feel free to come back

I know that feeling of frustration when you lose a game.  There's always going to be a better player though. At least chess will teach you that quickly enough. 

In your last game ...c5 isn't so good, because you end up with a weaker pawn structure after Bxf5. Doubled pawns can give you open files, but they can also be real weaknesses. Here after move 11 you see the problem. You were able to defend it, but by defending the pawn, you made the dark squares incredibly weak. A weak color complex is another weakness. 

You might want to try out Silman's book 'Reassess your Chess'. I've always used it to train my pupils. You could use it to get to know what typical strategy could be. Focus on the static weaknesses. You don't have to go too deep. Just knowing and seeing what you could do about a bad bishop, and applying that in your own games, helps you out with middlegame strategy. The 'dynamic' advantages, like lead in development, are a bit too difficult for now, so I wouldn't worry about them yet. 

Btw, in your last game, there were not a lot of things that you need to be too worried about. Notice how the game ended by losing a piece. This is why first and foremost it will always be most important to look for tactics and get better at tactics. When I grew up, people would say you could get to 2000+ with studying tactics only. That really shows how important it truly is. 

Thank you for the encouraging words :-)

I wasn't listening to you guys (obviously) and still played 10min games. I now switched to 15+10 (I rly can't stand longer games - i am too impatient).

I think what helped me too was watching Chess Fundamentals #1: Undefended Pieces by John Bartholomew. I assume i was trying to do step 2 and 3 and forgetting about the real fundamentals.

I definitely have a look at your book recommendation!

BTW: Im feel really happy about my last game. My opponent didn't blunder and i still got the win. Besides of a couple of pawn-moves i missed i feel that i played pretty solid. Thats a pattern in recognized in the past, i might have to take a look into this later (in my journey). And well the useless moves in the beginning with the bishop. It's crazy how a fresh mind and a good game can do wonders for your confidence.

Good game!

Hey again! I wanted to give a quick update on my progress. Its going really good and with a glorious win in 2 moves ;-) i hit 1000 again. On one side it makes me happy to see on the other hand it gives me a lot of anxiety. Lets see how i can handle that.

Overall im feeling really good how it goes. I make a lot less blunders and won 16 out of my last 20 games.

The things i did (and you proposed) that helped me the most:

• Switch to 15/10 time control
• I try to do as many puzzles a day (quality over quantity)
• The videos of John Bartholomew on Youtube. Somehow this guy has an awesome way of explaining things and they clicked immediately in my brain. Especially the beginner series and the concept of "undefended pieces" helped me a lot. Its so obvious but the shift of focus helped me to get in less trouble and find more tactics

I also ordered How to reassess your Chess. This is recommended for 1400+ but ill report how much i already can learn from that book