People who know better than me say that at your (our) level you must go for tatics all the way. It's also good to get game experience, so, for now, you should value playing games more than studying books (sounds good to me).
Good luck!
I've hit a wall
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I found "The Tao of Chess" to be a good book. It gives 100 tips, I'm not into reading dry chess books but I found this one to be helpful. Maybe you should experiment with a completely new opening?
davidegpc wrote:
Yeah, throw away Silman's books, they will prevent you from improving. Chess is 100% tactics. Also the so-called "positional" play is based on tactics, otherwise how would computers win also the best players in the world?
You need to work on the checkmates, and then on tactics and in 2 years you will achieve a minimum of 2000. There are some good books which are structured to open your eyes.
If you honestly do not believe in the existense of anything but tactics in chess, then you must be incredibly talented to have gotten all the way to 1600.
To the OP; tactics trainer and Silman's books are both awesome; basically everything you've mentioned is great for improving and I don't think you'll need any new material until you finish those books.
I know what you mean. get a coach or somethin. my coach says in a critical(important and passed the opening theory usually)position ask yourself 4 questions:
what does my opponent want to do?
how can i prevent his /her plan
what are the disadvantages of my position
how can i improve my position
my coach says to find a move that fulfills all these requirements.its usually a bit hard
davidegpc wrote:
Talent doesn't exist, I started to play in January 2011 and I was 1100 OTB, now I'm 1600 OTB, and the year is not finished, so yes there is nothing else than tactics.
But you are free to believe what you want, just don't waste my time, since I don't want to be converted to your beliefs, and surely you don't care about mine.
Jul 5, 2011
0
#7
www.chess.com/tactics - daily!
www.chess.com/chessmentor - daily!
www.chess.com/videos - daily!
also, we have a set of study plans for you coming soon!
I like how you started this year, reaching a slick 2000 rating, and already know better than an International Master with decades of experience how to teach the general audience how chess should be played! :-)
That was in response to david egg
davidegpc wrote:
Let's hope one day moderators prevent trolls from writing useless messages like your.
davidegpc wrote:
heinzie wrote:
I like how you started this year, reaching a slick 2000 rating, and already know better than an International Master with decades of experience how to teach the general audience how chess should be played! :-)
Well then you should ask yourself how many of those students of the IM, with decades of experience, reached IM or GM level, because if the answer is "NONE" then maybe we don't need that IM as teacher.
Or at least I don't need snake-oil salesmen to teach me anything, but I wish they continue to teach to my possible opponents (and milk their money!), because it will be fun to win easily, as it was up to now.
I still can't tell if you're trolling or not (?)
Anyway, obviously someone with decades of playing and teaching experience (who has also written multiple, well received books) knows better than an amateur whose started 6 months ago, with no teaching experience, a 1600 rating, and assumes his personal experience will automatically apply to anyone else trying to learn.
But feel free to pretend you know better than everyone else (btw everyone already knows tactics are important, give it a rest :p)
davidegpc wrote:
Yeah, throw away Silman's books, they will prevent you from improving. Chess is 100% tactics. Also the so-called "positional" play is based on tactics, otherwise how would computers win also the best players in the world?
You need to work on the checkmates, and then on tactics and in 2 years you will achieve a minimum of 2000. There are some good books which are structured to open your eyes.
Thanks for trying to convert us 
. I love MY WAY OR THE HIGHWAY!!! I"M RIGHT YOUR WRONGZ!!! I am sure am glad that your rating is going up 
. Good for you. I can't wait until your a GM!!! (since you said talent isn't real. We don't even need to get into prodigies and things like that)
Anyway I hope you keep posting here and saying the same thing over and over again. I love it 
You need to know why you lose. Maybe it's tactics, but it's wrong to assume that it is like davidegpc does; for example I honestly believe my tactics are good enough, but other things cause me to stay low in rating.
For your sake, I hope your problem isn't a lack of motivation like it is mine.
oinquarki wrote:
kemistree4 wrote:
Hi,
I've gotten into chess relatively recently. Well actually i should say I've gotten into studying chess fairly recently. Before about 4 or 5 years ago i played a lot of games but never really worried about getting better at it. Now I have set a goal of 1800 to meet within the next 2 years. I'm growing steadily in my rating but I seem to have come against a wall where i fluctuate in the same range of ratings (about 1400 to mid 1500). The way I'm thinking obviously isnt getting me anywhere so I'm fishing for suggestions from people on the forum as to how you guys dealt with this problem. I've been doing the tactics trainer, started challenging higher rated people on live chess, and picked up a couple of Silman's books (which i enjoy). Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. What worked for you?
Progress usually happens like this, there will be a period of growth, then you'll seem to hit a wall and the rating will plateau for awhile, so don't let it bother you too much :)
One thing that helped me was to challenge myself during a game to find the best move I could and be happy with it no matter how my opponent responded... yeah that sounds corny, but enough blitz chess and it became a habit to settle for OK moves many times during a game.
This goes for your opponent too, when considering their response don't assume an OK move for them (or even worse, a move that helps your idea happen). Try to hold the new position in your head and consider a few possible replies from your opponent (they may totally ignore your move). Do you like your move in every case? If so, great, but you're not done yet :) Next consider at least 1 other move for yourself (the old "once you see a good move look for a better one" idea).
If you only consider 1 move for yourself or one reply from your opponent you're more likely to blunder and much more likely to play so-so moves when you're able to do better with what you already know.
Of course for you personally you may need more tactics/openings/endgames/other This is just something that helped me.
Jul 5, 2011
0
#19
To the OP, now you can see that improving is not a simple answer, I personally feel two great players can say they achieved a very high chess rating, but both went different routes. There are various fields where the training can be modified to fit the individual, so why not chess. You may have to experiment which one is best for you, but a personal trainer is a good thought if you have the spare $$ Good luck going over acouple of your games I feel you are coming along and with a little fine tuning you are going to be a tough apponent!
Hi,
I've gotten into chess relatively recently. Well actually i should say I've gotten into studying chess fairly recently. Before about 4 or 5 years ago i played a lot of games but never really worried about getting better at it. Now I have set a goal of 1800 to meet within the next 2 years. I'm growing steadily in my rating but I seem to have come against a wall where i fluctuate in the same range of ratings (about 1400 to mid 1500). The way I'm thinking obviously isnt getting me anywhere so I'm fishing for suggestions from people on the forum as to how you guys dealt with this problem. I've been doing the tactics trainer, started challenging higher rated people on live chess, and picked up a couple of Silman's books (which i enjoy). Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. What worked for you?