1400 Rated Chess.com player wants to get to 1800 in 3 months w/ PLAN OF ACTION

i generally play on chess.com about 8 hrs a day. I want a plan of action to get me to 1800 in 3 months.  At 8 hours a day I feel this is possible but know that it will not come by ONLY playing games and not studying.

Please give me feedback on how I could/should break these 8 hours a day down so that I can truely achieve 1800 in 90 days.

Thanks in Advace people.  Thank you so much!

So play a lot of players that are 100 - 200 pts lower than I ?

Well, if we're seriously talking about devoting 8 hours a day to chess - and I don't mean bullet and blitz - I think it's very possible to reach an 1800 level of play in three months.  I'm assuming the goal is to play at 1800 level first, as the USCF rating system is not known for its timeliness in updating "official" ratings, and even your online rating may take awhile to catch up with your strength.

1.  Find a good coach.  At the 1400-1800 level, it is my opinion that you will get more out of a local National Master who knows you and cares about your progress than by paying $40-50/hour on a GM who gives you a series of prepared lessons (although there are some very excellent GM teachers as well).

2.  Keep your mind open.  Don't expect a great rise in rating because you "master" a certain variation in the Sicilian.  Chess is holistic, so learn the whole game.

3,  Play long games as well as short games.  Annotate your long games (don't cheat - annotate your losses and draws, as well).  In my opinion, your thoughts are more important than your analysis when you find errors in your strategy or calculations because many such errors do not travel alone, but are the symptoms of bad thinking processes or evaluation processes.  I say this because I don't believe we ever outgrow that fact.  But if you keep it in the forefront of your mind by annotating your thoughts, it will help greatly.

4.  When practicing tactics, review the games from which they came.  In doing this, you will learn how the victor created the weaknesses and then developed the pattern into the final tactic.  This is much more useful than remembering hundreds of positions that you have no idea how to create in an actual game.

5.  Endgames.  Don't neglect them.  I like Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual, myself, but let your coach suggest materials based on your current progress.

try this...

http://www.chess.com/article/view/study-plan-directory

 Sounds like you already made your plan, what else are we supposed to say?

But like ashwath said in so many words, you can't get your skill to jump 400 points in 3 months if you've already plateaued... and with 200+ games under your belt @ 8 hours a day I'm guessing your rating is accurate.

If you're just playing games, you're more likely practicing bad habits.  KCO, that's a great looking link you gave.  I haven't gone through it in depth, but on the surface it's got the right stuff.

Some say ratings are correlated with the hours of study you put in. I agree but there is a big difference in how you can use that study time( and therefore the results you get). It is probably very unlikely you will make such a large jump in ranking in such a small time. Getting a coach would be your best bet. 

Also keep in mind the road to 1800 is much easier and quicker than the one above 1800

Now that I've had a chance to browse a few sections of that study plan that KCO mentioned, I'm VERY impressed.  It bears repeating - .  I'm an Expert (2000+) and I'm going to use that myself!  IMHO, viewing the lectures and doing the drills could take you far beyond 1800 in a short time (can't promise 3 months for 2000, sorry).  One more thing I forgot to mention - don't let numbers intimidate you.  1800 players are good, but are definitely fallible and prone to error.  Of course, so are 2000 players!  I lost a slow tournament game recently in 6 moves against 1. b4, so yeah, we all have our moments.

In summary - use the number as your guide, but not the end-all.  And most importantly - savor and enjoy the journey.

Play and beat everyone rated over 1800. Should be simple.

My children will probably tell you that although my advice is usually direct and straight to the point, it is ultimately useless.

u want to get 1800 in online chess or live chess? if its online chess I think u can do it, but if u are talking about live chess i highly doubt you will make it.

Quite honestly, he likely cannot play enough USCF rated games in 3 months.  Perhaps here, he can achieve that rating, but I think more importantly, he wants to play at that level or above reasonably consistently.  It's the feeling of earned accomplishment.  Honestly - I don't see a reason, if he's sincere, why he cannot make or exceed that goal.

Just do Scholar's Mate for three straight months. 

I would spend at least half of the eight hours/day studying: Begin reading a bit about proper thought process in determining a move every turn (probably Heisman). Then I'd recommend working through about one to two books on basic tactics followed by a more advanced puzzle book. After that, it would be a good idea to read a book devoted to position/strategy (Silman comes to mind here). Now it's time to get the basic endgame stuff required for the 1800 range (here, too, Silman's endgame book would be a good choice). Lastly, if you still have time, I would think about building an opening repertoire that suits your style (Starting Out series is great for that).

Edit: Oh and about the other half of the eight hours: Definitely do a post mortem session for every game you played - especially those you lost! Use a database to see where you would like to do things differently next time that opening line comes up. Look for missed tactics, lost tempos etc - generally try to find out what went wrong with your game so you could possibly avoid those things next time. 

i am in the same boat, about half way there.

The #1 thing that helped me was downloading the PGN on every game and having fritz analyze the moves.

I found i was making the same kind of mistakes.  At the 1400-1800 level common mistakes I find are:

1. the knight pins to the Q+K when its a problem and when its not

2. Getting frustrated and sacrificing pawn structure to open up your position (almost never a good idea unless you can see a direct material gain)

3. Tunnel vision on attacking or defending, a quick switch to the queen side after defending on the king side can work miracles.

4. the a2-a3, h2-h3 moves - when this is warranted, and when its just a waste of tempo (maybe 1600-1800 error)

MY chess comp analysis mode finds these same 4 mistakes every game for my opponents, i now do not make them.  Of course, it will find other mistakes with long tactical lines, but I ignore those.  Yes - you can become that good but I find at this level, it just runs out your clock and is not worth pursuing.  Maybe that is for 1800+

I am not an expert at all but I know the 1400-1800 field well.  I play very computer-like since the computer tends to come up with the same types of solutions to the common openings at this level.  The QGA, Ruy Lopez, and Sicilian.  The computer deviates quickly from the book, as do I.  At our level, the opening your opponent is playing is the one opening he knows very well, so get out of the book ASAP.

Sorry that's unrealistic you'll only burn out and do more harm than good to your chess study properly and take lessons from a teacher pay your dues and get experience.

Get there the right way don't train half ass!

Alec, I understand what you're saying, but I want to encourage him.  If the goal is realistic, and by realistic, I mean raise his standard of play to the 1800 level (forget about rating), I think it can be done.  He has to get a coach - that, in my opinion, is a must.  He needs someone to be accountable to.  If he goes through the study program at Chess.com, I can guarantee he will know more than most 1800s... heck, more than most 2000s know, and the difficult part will be putting it into practice and learning pattern recognition.  It's easy to see, for example, Philidor's Draw in the simplified form, but recognizing it as the drawing out from a losing position many moves off will take time.

Right now, the priorities - a positive attitude, get a coach, work the chess.com program, play slow games, and annotate them.  Then let's see what happens.  I think we should give him moral support!  He can do this if he really works at it!

If you're having trouble doing the Scholar's Mate as black: