What actions and how much effort must I put forward to go from a 1181 to a 1700+ chess player?  I realize that time has passed me by for me to become an IM or a GM and truthfully do not possess that type of talent, but I do believe that my chess play can become better with some guidance... Now  that time is available for me to place chess as one of my top priorities, I would like to see how far I can go, as one of my issues had been not being able to play chess as often as I'd like to due to other responsibilities...

Your answers would be most appreciative!!

Thanks!

Lee

Thanks

Y

If you're serious about it, and have some money to spend on it, I highly recommend getting a teacher.  I attended group lessons for a little over a year, and I went from a USCF rating of 1034 to 1687 now.  On average, I usually beat/draw 1800s up.  Basically, you need to put work into it, maybe study, and just keep on playing.  Before I started learning from a teacher, I played A LOT!  I find it very good to play strong players in person.  To me, playing in person is different than playing online, but that's just my point of view.

If you do try to get a coach, be sure to research them first.  You don't want a 1500 for a teacher.  My teacher is a WGM, and it was group lessons with 1-4 other peers.

If you don't want to get a coach, or pay, then I suggest reading books on it.  This book is highly suggested, "How to Reassess your Chess" GREAT BOOK!  Get it. :) 

If you have a lot of bucks to burn with sir, I recommend that you enroll in a Chess class of a master (FM, NM, IM and GM), in that way you will enhance more of your playing skills, tactics and strategies. But if you're not wealthy enough to purchase those, I would rather advice you to PLAY 1500+ rated players in LiveChess here in chess.com, experience is the best teacher in my opinion. Just like here. Before, my rating is only playing around 1450 to 1550, and as days past by and because I play more players and learn from my lost games, now my Blitz rating is around 18xx and Bullet of 25xx. And also try to analyze some of your lost games, you will learn a tons of good stuffs there, try to find what move made your positions worst, what is your blunder in that game. In that way you will save money and you will learn to know your playing style much more.

I hope that one helps you, see you in LiveChess.

-peace

Some good advice here.

while i find commen sense and good luck make up the majority of the game, memory makes up a faIR BIT . Remembering "that" position , how it lead to that in the first place and how not to go back there.

Also, one last thing I forgot to mention.  This is very important that people on here will not explain to you, positional play.  The way you should learn about positional play is from a book, or a teacher because it's very important if you want to become a better player.  If you learn anything incorrect, it may stick to your memory, and you don't want that.  So, do yourself a favor and get a book on it.

Advice needs to fit your current situation.  

However, you have not played a single game since you became a member 6 months ago on April 24, 2010.

Hence any kind of advice given you may or may not be useful to you.

Play 10 games, at least, and maybe we will know exactly what you need to improve your game.  

Play the game

If that doesn't improve your rating, I don't know what does

 I appreciate your feedback and others. I'll do some research to determine which teacher/coach that will fit my schedule and wallet and I will take your advise and and get," How to Reassess your Chess."

Thanks again!!

Lee Davis

 I appreciate your feedback. Since reading your reply, I updated my membership on Chess.com to Diamond so that I may use this websites features and I will begin playing others in LiveChess.

Thanks again!!

Lee Davis

I've read the book called,"My System," by Aron Nimzowitsch in which I enjoyed; however it has been sometime since reading and will need to refresh my memory. Do you have a recomendation as to another good book on positional play?

Thanks!

Lee Davis

 Great advise! I am working on playing real people on LiveChess in the very near future. Currently, I am going through the lessons given on line here at Chess.com as I updated my account to  Diamond.

Thanks!

Lee Davis

 Thanks for the advise and I will take it to heart!!

Lee Davis

For me, it was tactics, tactics, tactics.  I went from being around 1000 to around 1700 strength in 2 years without a ton of OTB experience.  Tactics on here are OK, but I personally prefer chessmagnetschool.com for the low-level tactics and chesstempo.com for the higher level tactics.  I also suggest heavy endgame study.

Hope this helps,

Wicksta85

1000-1600? thats a big jump my biggest jump was like 1600-1800 in a month