What is best?

I totally agree Henry601!!! You have given the BEST advice here!

Experiment.  Play what looks like an interesting move (usually a sacrifice).  If it works, you have a new weapon in your arsenal.  If it fails, review the game and see if you can find a way to make it work.

common theme less games

All of the previous opinions are valid in their own way.

If you wish to judge your merit by your rating then play weaker players to bump up your score.

If you wish to judge your merit by how you feel when you have finished your game then continue as you are. Be angry when you blunder and elated when you win. Your heart is in the right place. There are no quick fixes, improvement comes through understanding and experience.

CHESS IS LIKE DRIVING , DO U THINK WHEN U DRIVE? NO ........U JUST DRIVE , UR BODY SUBCONSCIOUSLY DO ALL THE WORK...to reach that in chess ur eyes and mind must be SUBCON.. BE ABLE TO RECOGNISE PATTERNS and to reach that follow those 100 tips:

1. practice TACTICS

2. practice TACTICS

3. practice TACTICS

4. practice TACTICS

5. practice TACTICS

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100.  practice TACTICS

Play stronger players than you. Take the losses cos that's part of the learning process. Play + practice and learn and it all takes time but if one sticks with the ups and downs, one will get better. That's life!

In chess Donna,every player finds their own level.C.C.is fun totally different from O.T.B.chess were you face your opponent.Forget ratings, enjoy the games you play.If we were all rated the same,it would take the fun of playing away. Best Wishes For The New Year.

"The hard trouth is that you stink at tactics." - pskogli

HAHAHAHA

Wow ... talk about attacks ...

Right let me explain first ...

THIS WAS AN EXPERIMENT!!!!!

I know what I need to do to become a better player. I need to cut down groups, chat less, study the board for longer, play less games, go on the tactics trainer yes I know all this but this was just an experiment to show that when people ask how best to develop their game they get so much conflicting advice!!!

"The more games you play the better you become" vs "Play small amounts of games so you can concentrate" 

"You dvelop best learning openings" 

"You learn best studying end games" 

And the list goes on and on and on ...

Don't you get the picture? To be really good, you need to know it all! There is no shortcut's!

If you like me think it's ok to just have fun (you'll never be really good) study the part's you like the most. When you just play for fun, you'll have some gaps in your knowledge, when your opponent find them, you'll lose big time!

-To win as many games as possible, try to stear the game into positions you can handle, try to learn your weak and less weak parts of the game.

Donna,

here is an article apparently tailored for you!

http://blog.chess.com/IgorKhmelnitsky/improve-your-chess---for-all-levels

Cool I shall take a look :)

it put me to sleep <.<

though I should do something similiar, never realized chess would be that specific

Maybe it's a waste of time to continue playing games with anyone 1500 or less.

If hig rating is your goal, stop playing annyone below your own rating. Stop playing annyone that beat's you all the time, play those you beat.