I'm sucking at Chess and I don't know how to Improve Properly

@D3LUZION said in #1:

> Maybe I perceived myself to be higher in skill than I actually was.

As does every chess player everywhere. Except Magnus. Magnus does not believe he is the GOAT.

Study tactics. Do puzzles. Play OTB. Book tactics get. Jeremy Silman look up. Don't play the scotch. Bad is the scotch. Yoda-

Looking at the game it appears you aren't looking at the entire board on many moves. Every move discovered attacks should be looked at for long range material like bishops/rooks/queens. That alone would have helped a great deal in this game. Below 1800 rating hiding behind your pawns and setting up discovered attacks will actually win most games embarrassingly enough.

Depth of calculation here is also lacking as most the threats and positional moves seem to not take into consideration things like:
-pawn structure
-2-3 move tactics
-If a check actually helps or not

You are playing the game waaaay too quickly for your calculation ability. Focus on playing slower better moves EVEN if you lose more. When your calculating ability improves you will be able to finish games in a positive way at that level with ease. Focus less on winning and more on playing good moves with the time you have available. Do not touch material until you've decided on something that is a good move and have good reasons for making that move. Walking your bishop into a pawn move that loses you time in the opening should not occur if you are taking proper time. I encourage most players who are learning to spend almost all their time in the first 30 moves of the game. Honestly, decisive parts of the game are almost always happening prior to move 30. Then the only question is your endgame skills good enough to clean up the mess if you get a winning position or save a lost one. If you can reliably achieve winning positions against players of equal rating in the first 30 moves then you can start playing them faster. Prior to that take your time and ask all the important questions.

What am I threatening?
What is my opponent threatening?
Who is faster?
Any tactics available that would change those factors?
If position has few tactics or threats what do I want to achieve out of my position?
What does my opponent what to achieve out of their position?
How can I improve my position and can I do it without allowing my opponent's best plans/ideas/cheapos?

Finally, you must play each game to learn something as opposed to a result like win/loss/draw. If you win/lose matters not if you didn't learn anything because you end up the same strength if you just mindlessly make moves without doing the homework during and after the game. Basically the key to getting better at chess is hating losing enough that you will sacrifice your time and efforts to learn not to repeat similar mistakes. It takes time, effort, and that process takes many games... But you must hate losing enough to actually take the time to review your games/moves rather than keep playing many games to get that win/loss rush.

Did you learn an opening trick this game or something not to do in the opening? Did you learn a tactic to watch for? Did you learn about discovered checks or king safety? This game is not a high level game, but it is an instructive game to review for a weak player. There are a lot of mistakes on both sides and things that could be improved. Even if you take 1 thing out of this game, play 100 games and learn 100 different things... You will be a much stronger player by the end of the year. Your chess strength is low enough that age shouldn't be a big factor in your improvement. 1300 lichess probably closer to 1000 USCF which is around the average rating of players when they start tournament play.

Thanks for the recommendations, everyone, It motivates me to learn more, knowing that there are other people here that can help me or give me advices.

@Blundered_the_queen said in #14:
> I'm by no means an expert in chess or psychology (and you should take everything I say with a big dose of scepticism) but I think the problem isn't his tactical ability or work ethic, it's probably some psychological issue that stops him from putting his actual tactical strength into practice in the middle of a game. @Whitsellf suggested that he's not looking at the board in many of his moves; I think this might mean D3luzion usually plays on autopilot when he's playing a game, and he only really thinks about his moves when puzzling.

Yes, I think these are part of my main problems right now.
I feel like I can't apply some of the tactics I come across while training.
While playing, I can't seem to create or find opportunities to use them.
It was not a problem in lower-rated games (1000) since most players I faced would eventually give me a tactical pattern I recognized, in short, it's more obvious to me.
Maybe I'm just in a monkey brain state right now, but It got more challenging for me to see them after climbing a little higher on the Elo ladder.
The enemy's position seems solid, everything is guarded, and I get a little anxious when moving my pieces because I may unknowingly give my opponent an advantage.
Especially in the early to mid-game, I don't know what moves to do or pick if I can't find a tactical line.
This difficulty often leads me to self-destruct and eventually mess up what little winning percentage I have.

And yes, I think I also go on auto-pilot for no reason sometimes, lol.

@Orciety said in #5:
> Study some more openings, watch some videos on youtube. You can also go to the Learn sections on Lichess to train your Tactics and Endgames. Against the scotch, I like to play exd4, and after Nxd4 go Qh4.

I haven't touched openings too much yet, so it's time to learn a bit more.
Nice, a video recommendation, Thanksss.

@PTX187 said in #7:
> Don't worry, everything is fine. Apparently, you make too high demands on yourself. Hence the excitement and a lot of mistakes.
> I think you deserved to win more in this game.
> By the way, never give up! At this level, the game is full of surprises. Let the grandmasters give up)
>
> Your opponent played poorly, I don't understand how this is possible: he has ratings in blitz and rapid about 2000.
>
> If you have time, do puzzles. Take your time, try to have more correctly solved puzzles.
> Do this study more often. And find others from the same coach.

Whoah, I didn't even notice he has such a high rating in blitz and rapid lol.
I'll take your recommendations, Thanksss.

Edit:
With a little bit of self-reflection, I really think I have trouble finding good positional moves, or something like that.
When doing puzzles, I know that there is a good move somewhere but in the game? I can't seem to find those, determine, or even set it up. Which might be why I'm currently sucking right now after climbing the Elo ladder a little bit. I may be wrong, but this is what I feel like.

Start by opening...find a reference...if opponent use this opening...how to counter....u can ask someone who really study chess openings...

Do 25 tactics per day, spending time thinking about the moves and your game will improve.

And when all else fails, roll a 16 sided die.

@FlyAngler said in #11:
> Magnus does not believe he is the GOAT.

he said his favourite player from the past was himself a couple years ago lol