I'll copy my reply from a different topic:
What learning materials have you made use of?
Do you analyze your games with an engine? Do you check your openings against a database after the game is over?
It's possible to get better, but you'll have to learn new things and change old habits.
You haven't played a game here in more than three years. If you had played here, you could look at a database of your games and see if there are problems with your openings.
Possibly helpful:
Simple Attacking Plans by Fred Wilson (2012)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708090402/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review874.pdf
Logical Chess: Move by Move by Irving Chernev (1957)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708104437/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/logichess.pdf
The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played by Irving Chernev (1965)
https://chessbookreviews.wordpress.com/tag/most-instructive-games-of-chess-ever-played/
Winning Chess by Irving Chernev and Fred Reinfeld (1949)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708093415/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review919.pdf
Discovering Chess Openings by GM John Emms (2006)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627114655/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen91.pdf
Openings for Amateurs by Pete Tamburro (2014)
http://kenilworthian.blogspot.com/2014/05/review-of-pete-tamburros-openings-for.html
Chess Endgames for Kids by Karsten Müller (2015)
https://chessbookreviews.wordpress.com/tag/chess-endgames-for-kids/
A Guide to Chess Improvement by Dan Heisman (2010)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708105628/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review781.pdf
Everyone is different. However, I hope you find something here that may be of help to you. Do you know all the basic checkmates ? Rook and King against lone king, for example. 2 bishops and king against a king.
Bishop and Knight and king, against a king. Also the back rank mates, etc. You should learn them all, if you don't know them. Not only do you need to know them to improve, they help you in other ways as well, because by knowing them, you will improve your piece coordination, which is vital for improvement.
Also checking general opening principles, and going over them, beginning pawn structures. End game positions, that are very common. Tactics, do lots of them. As many as possible. Don't look at a timer, and don't cheat to even get a clue, just do them, also learn every single mating pattern you can, there are numerous, just keep reviewing them.
Get a good book on opening principles, do a search on others that have asked for improvement help, and go through them. The best beginner book has lots of diagrams of positions for you to become familiar with.
Good luck.
I swear I get dumber and dumber with every day as I play. Sometimes it's frustrating, but then I remember that I don't have the talent nor will to become great, and the frustration goes away.
Once I realized improving in chess requires effort comparable to getting a second job, I lost interest in improving. Now I'm just playing mindlessly, poking at pieces with all the ensuing hilarity.
I do enjoy playing 1000-1200 opponents most, some games are truly hilarious, I'm playing at work and people look at me weird when they hear me laughing at what's going on with the game.
If I concentrate I can beat a 1500+ player now and then, and although it does bring some short lived satisfaction and pride, it requires very unfun amounts of concentration, and becomes stressful and I never enjoy these games. So I stick with stupid and funny games at my current level instead.
The fact that you said you mainly play online is part of your problem:
1) Study Chess Books - 1 hour of "serious" studying of a chess book will benefit you more than 12 hours of online blitz.
2) Play in Over The Board Standard Time Control Tournaments - Any Game/5, Game/10, Game/15, etc garbage online isn't going to help you in the long run. Playing it occasionally will make you better at calculating faster because of time controls, but it won't make your game all around any better. But you need to play over the board at long time control tournaments to succeed.
3) Do you know the answer to all of the following? If you say no to any of these, are aren't very good. They are all very basic items:
If you don't know the answer to any of those questions like the back of your hand, you're not ready to just "play a lot", you need to study badly.
3) Do you know the answer to all of the following? If you say no to any of these, are aren't very good. They are all very basic items:
If I told you that there are a White Queen on b1, White King on a1, and Black King on h8, and you were White, can you mate me without a board, each of us stating moves verbally? If I put a White King on c1, White Knight on b1, White Bishop on a1, and Black King on b3, and told you it was White to move, and you are sitting at a 3D board with this position showing, could you mate me in under 50 moves with 10 minutes on your clock? Could you tell me what pieces are on the board if White is up material and I told you the board either has Lucena's Position, Philidor's Position, the Short-Side Defense, or the Long-Side Defense on it, what pieces are on the board of each color? In which of the 4 cases is White winning and how do you do it?If you don't know the answer to any of those questions like the back of your hand, you're not ready to just "play a lot", you need to study badly.
I don't think I could do any of those three you listed, and if I could I'd have no confidence, but I like to think I'm okay.
I can do the second and third ones.
I'll copy my reply from a different topic:
What learning materials have you made use of?
Do you analyze your games with an engine? Do you check your openings against a database after the game is over?
It's possible to get better, but you'll have to learn new things and change old habits.
I'm kind of laughing here. I do not own a chess book however I own over 10 chess boards and have 9 chess apps on my phone. I only learn from losing and winning. I do not record my moves or save games I play.
I do not run my games through an engine. How would I go about doing that? I do not check my openings against a database, how would I do that as well?
I can't stop laughing. You guys are probably thinking "ummm duhhh! no wonder he's not improving". hey sometimes becoming aware is just the first step. Thanks for responding.
I find that if you play less, you loose less. Just kidding.
I keep laughing at this comment.
You haven't played a game here in more than three years. If you had played here, you could look at a database of your games and see if there are problems with your openings.
I'll begin playing here more that seems like a logical way to get better. Chess with Friends sucks anyway.
Most of the games I play have a full day to make a move. Sometimes makes for very long games. I don't spend much time analyzing my wins or losses I just move on to the next game. My blunders can be quite frustrating though. sometimes I'm glad not to go back and review lol. Doing more tactic puzzles is something I'll try to do more of. it's a reoccuring suggestion here.
Everyone is different. However, I hope you find something here that may be of help to you. Do you know all the basic checkmates ? Rook and King against lone king, for example. 2 bishops and king against a king.
Bishop and Knight and king, against a king. Also the back rank mates, etc. You should learn them all, if you don't know them. Not only do you need to know them to improve, they help you in other ways as well, because by knowing them, you will improve your piece coordination, which is vital for improvement.
Also checking general opening principles, and going over them, beginning pawn structures. End game positions, that are very common. Tactics, do lots of them. As many as possible. Don't look at a timer, and don't cheat to even get a clue, just do them, also learn every single mating pattern you can, there are numerous, just keep reviewing them.
Get a good book on opening principles, do a search on others that have asked for improvement help, and go through them. The best beginner book has lots of diagrams of positions for you to become familiar with.
Good luck.
Thanks for your response Crimson. I don't think I could honestly answer any of the situations you stated. I'm discovering that you all are suggesting I actually study some basic prinicpals of checkmates, structures and other set ups, none of which I've done. I do watch a lot of videos on youtube of games played and analysis's of games. My wife and kids think i'm a complete geek for watching someone narrate a game on youtube but I really enjoy it. thats about the extent of my research and studying.
I swear I get dumber and dumber with every day as I play. Sometimes it's frustrating, but then I remember that I don't have the talent nor will to become great, and the frustration goes away.
Once I realized improving in chess requires effort comparable to getting a second job, I lost interest in improving. Now I'm just playing mindlessly, poking at pieces with all the ensuing hilarity.
I do enjoy playing 1000-1200 opponents most, some games are truly hilarious, I'm playing at work and people look at me weird when they hear me laughing at what's going on with the game.
If I concentrate I can beat a 1500+ player now and then, and although it does bring some short lived satisfaction and pride, it requires very unfun amounts of concentration, and becomes stressful and I never enjoy these games. So I stick with stupid and funny games at my current level instead.
this was a great response. I think I spend enough time playing chess, watching youtube videos of chess games and buying chess boards from rummage sales to put in some real effort to get better. I feel I have a passion for the game and I honestly want to improve and will do what it takes to improve even slightly.
The fact that you said you mainly play online is part of your problem:
1) Study Chess Books - 1 hour of "serious" studying of a chess book will benefit you more than 12 hours of online blitz.
2) Play in Over The Board Standard Time Control Tournaments - Any Game/5, Game/10, Game/15, etc garbage online isn't going to help you in the long run. Playing it occasionally will make you better at calculating faster because of time controls, but it won't make your game all around any better. But you need to play over the board at long time control tournaments to succeed.
3) Do you know the answer to all of the following? If you say no to any of these, are aren't very good. They are all very basic items:
If I told you that there are a White Queen on b1, White King on a1, and Black King on h8, and you were White, can you mate me without a board, each of us stating moves verbally? If I put a White King on c1, White Knight on b1, White Bishop on a1, and Black King on b3, and told you it was White to move, and you are sitting at a 3D board with this position showing, could you mate me in under 50 moves with 10 minutes on your clock? Could you tell me what pieces are on the board if White is up material and I told you the board either has Lucena's Position, Philidor's Position, the Short-Side Defense, or the Long-Side Defense on it, what pieces are on the board of each color? In which of the 4 cases is White winning and how do you do it?If you don't know the answer to any of those questions like the back of your hand, you're not ready to just "play a lot", you need to study badly.
Hey Thriller, based on your response, which I totally appreciate the time you took to write, I really need to study. Here I thought I knew the game but man do I have a lot to learn. I enjoy the game enough to put in the effort to improve I just need to itemize or prioritize what to do first since I really haven't done much outside of playing and watching youtube videos of games played by GMs. So that's my logical next question. I haven't taken any studying seriously so what do I study first? Openings? Middle games? Endings? checkmates? structures? I'll take any advice.
I'll copy my reply from a different topic:
What learning materials have you made use of?
Do you analyze your games with an engine? Do you check your openings against a database after the game is over?
It's possible to get better, but you'll have to learn new things and change old habits.
I'm kind of laughing here. I do not own a chess book however I own over 10 chess boards and have 9 chess apps on my phone. I only learn from losing and winning. I do not record my moves or save games I play.
I do not run my games through an engine. How would I go about doing that? I do not check my openings against a database, how would I do that as well?
I can't stop laughing. You guys are probably thinking "ummm duhhh! no wonder he's not improving". hey sometimes becoming aware is just the first step. Thanks for responding.
Haha, no problem 
This is a free engine + interface
http://scid.sourceforge.net/download.html
When you load it, there are some icons around mid screen. One of them looks like a play button (a triangle) that will start the engine thinking on the current position. The numbers are in values of a pawn. Positive for white, negative for black. So +1 is white is up the equivalent of a pawn. -3 is black is up the equivalent of a knight or bishop. Mostly you can use it to find the big opportunities you missed. If it says some innocuous pawn move was better and you have no idea why, don't sweat it, that's the sort of stuff you learn from books. Just use it to find when the evaluation jumps from near zero to +3 and you don't know why.
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There are various databases online. None totally free that I know of. If you get a membership here at chess.com you can use theirs. (It's free for the first 5 or so moves click here). If you want to spend a lot, you can buy chessbase database for around $100. I recommend looking up the opening after every game. Not to memorize, but just to see what's usually played. This way it sinks in over time. There's nothing wrong with memorizing... well, except some people let that be their main time sink, and it really doesn't help you improve if that's all you're doing.
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That's not the most important thing though. I suggest reading 1 tactics book + 1 strategy book.
The books in Seirawan's series are good, but you can read reviews for other books on Amazon. I see ThrillerFan was getting on to you about endgames. That's fine too, and in that case 1 tactics + 1 endgame... but I highly suggest going through a tactic book.
Example:
https://www.amazon.com/Winning-Chess-Tactics-Everyman/dp/1857443861
https://www.amazon.com/Winning-Chess-Strategies-Everyman/dp/1857443853
https://www.amazon.com/Winning-Chess-Endings-Everyman/dp/1857443489
I play a lot of chess. Mostly online via apps from my phone. For the amount of games I've logged over the last few years one would think I was pretty good however my rating is still likely 980-1300 give or take the streak. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong or what else I should be doing to improve. Any suggestions or tips? Please help!