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Advice for 1300 to advance my game

#1
Hello,

I am looking for advice on books/study ideas on how to improve my game to the next level.

I am aiming to be a solid 1500 to 1600 by the middle of next year. I have recently moved over to Lichess from chess.com as I prefer the look of it. I am a 1300 on chess.com and my rating is still being determined here. I only play 30min+ games as I know this is a good way to improve and play more realistic chess. I do tactics puzzles everyday on both chess.com and chesstempo but I am now looking for further ideas on how to improve my game.

I have a full time job so I want my chess study to be as efficient as possible.

I have noticed that I generally do not blunder just outright pieces but I blunder positions. I will often find myself allowing my structure to be destroyed or end up loosing my advantage in the middle game (or just ending up in a bad shape from opening lines I do not know - often overly aggressive gambits or early attacks).

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

I am also willing to pay for coaching or study with partners if anyone is interested?
#2
Hello,

"I do tactics puzzles everyday" - That is very good
"I only play 30min+ games" - That is very good

Let us look at an example


You could win at move 6 with a simple tactic: Bxf7+
You had used less than 1 minute in this 60+0 time control

It is not enough to play a slower time control, you must also use the time allowed bu that time control to benefit form it.
Look longer to find any tactics for you or for your opponent.
Most chess games are essentially decided by move 30.
So use most of your time by move 30, just leave a minute or two to finish off the game.
Whenever you lose a game, analyse it thoroughly so as to learn from your mistakes.
#3
To piggyback on what TPR is saying. When looking at moves to play, always look for checks, captures, and threats you have. Also look at what checks, captures, and threats your opponent will have after that move. Doing this will help you not blunder, and you will catch many more blunders that your opponent has. Next is probably to improve your understanding of positional strategy. Yasser Seirawan has written books about position and strategy. I haven't read them, so i can't personally attest to their quality but Yasser is very good at chess.
#4
Lichess has a slightly different rating system than chess.com, so 1300 on chess.com would probably equate to something around 1500-1600 on lichess. That would mean you're aiming at 1800-1900. Just to clarify.
#5
In my opinion the main things to focus on at your rating range is tactics. There's some pretty good lessons on things like skewers, forks, endgames, etc. so you can do these and plenty of puzzles to practice.

Regarding games i can only confirm what has been said before. Also make sure to analyze your process of thinking, especially on the critical points when mistakes happen. The questions you need to ask yourself are things like: Why did my opponent make this move? Is there a plan they are setting up? What are their weak points? How can i improve my position?

Lastly, i do recommend players who wanna improve their chess to join a local club for OTB play too. To be fair, with covid currently that doesn't work right this instant, but later down the line it sure is something to look into. Getting to know local fellow chess players works very motivating, at least it sure did for me.
#7
1) @tpr already mentioned the importance of actually using the time. This is absolutely pivotal. Take your time and don't let your fast playing opponent "infect" you to play fast too. That's also important for puzzles.

2) Another important thing is the analysis both of games and puzzles, especially the failures: Learn from your mistakes as much as possible!

3) Studying with partners is an excellent idea. Currently you have to do it online, but I would plan to join a chess club, when they are reopening. Analysing games with other players interactively face to face helped me a lot to improve.

4) I recommend to not only stew in your own juice and get some external inspiration from time to time. Online I pretty much like the Youtube-Channel of GM Daniel King. As a book I recommend "Understanding Chess Move by Move" by John Nunn.

Personally I made the biggest improvements in chess, when I did not care anymore about rating and instead purely enjoyed playing chess and doing puzzles.

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