next steps to improve

Good morning everyone,

Today I reached 1600 in bullet and have been hovering around 1620 in blitz for a few days. I have been playing for about a year now, and i’m wondering what netx steps I could take to improve apart for playing a bunch of games. Should i look into theory more? I currently play the ruylopez or scottish on e4-e5 and the kings indina attack against the sicilian or french. i never play d4 openings, would that help me get agreater understanding of the game? With black I play the sicilian against e4, generally narjdof sometimes dragon stuff, and kings indian defense/nimzo with black against d4. I guess a problem i have is tendency to not really calculate/make plans but rather using instinct instead. Any ideas on openings i should look into, videosi should watch, anything really, I want to get much better.

thank you all in advance and dont hesitate to challenge me if that helps you identify my weaknesses better.
Have a great day and safe quarantine

Maybe you should try playing classical (or at least rapid) more because you get to slow down and think rather than worry about time.

I agree with you @TheAcceleratedDragon, I've been playing classical/rapid in my past account and it helped me rise from 1350 to 1850 (in classical format). You should also try to do tactical puzzles and maybe learn some openings (in depth not just the first 4 moves)

I am trying to avoid blitz and bullet myself, I only play these in simuls now :)

thank you for the tips guys. any openings you recommend? i know the theory fairly well in the KIA and maybe the first 10 moves of the narjdof, as well as the main attacking theme so of the scottish. But im thinking its not diverse enough. i migght give the try at rapid but im very hyper active hence the focus on blitz.

Its probably personal preference but I think the Benko gambit is quite cool, you could always try every opening you find.

ok ill look at it forsure thx, did my first rapid game!

For openings, you might want to learn pawn structures, if you don't know them already. The idea is to know the structures and the plans for both sides. This is a different approach than what it sounds like you have been doing. You can then follow up on the openings that lead to the structures and plans you find suitable.

I wrote studies on this that start here: lichess.org/study/B5upGe9A
Each structure has a sample annotated game.

Of course tactics, tactics, tactics! But do deliberate practice instead of just puzzle after puzzle.
Tactics is the biggest bang for your study time. To understand what I mean by "deliberate practice" see one of my examples on the pin tactic here: lichess.org/study/8ZJdQk9G
The tactic itself will be obvious at your level. But pay attention to the questions that I say a person should be thinking about. These are the kind of questions that make up deliberate practice as opposed to simply getting it right/wrong and moving to the next puzzle.

Learn the elementary endgames as the second biggest bang for your study time.
I have a study for that also: lichess.org/study/vMmllPNw

Good luck!

Do puzzle rush every day and go over the ones you missed. Do that as much as possible. Do some puzzles on this website also daily.

Get tactics apps on your phone chess tactics pro, and CT Art tactics. They both have free versions and full paid versions. Do those same puzzles over and over until you basically memorized the answer to those hundreds or even thousands of puzzles. That means pattern recognition. I also like regular book puzzle books, Seirewan’s winning chess tactics is good for your level, Alburt’s 300 training positions is the best.

Read a couple of general books so you know what to do. I like Silman’s reassess your chess and/or ameteurs mind.

Some kind of basic Endgame course helps,

And practice some vision drills. Like naming colors of random squares without looking at the board, and naming which diagonals cross on which squares and going with a knight from one square to another without looking at the board. Or take a position from some book, look at it for 10 seconds and try to set it up on the board without the book. Then go over all relationships in a position: who is guarding whom? Who is attacking whom? Which checks and captures are available? Which pieces are in line with another piece? What are all legal moves for both sides? This stuff helps improve your tactics and reduces blunders.

This stuff should take you to about 2000, then it’s time to develop opening repertoire.

Bullet and blitz will not make you any better. As others have said you should not woory about openings for now.