Hello and thank you for reading! I am new to this website, and I am also a beginner in chess. I understand the game and can play decently well against players that are not trained. However I am wanting to develop my abilities to the next level.

So that being said, what are some good things to tackle first? Should I spend time with the tactics trainer? Or just play a lot of games?

Any advice is welcome and appreciated. Thank you :)

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

IMO, the first thing you should do is learn how to mate with:

2 queens; 2 rooks; 1 queen; 1 rook; 2 bishops. Then learn opposition. Without that knowledge you wont win many.

Do as many tactic puzzles as possible. http://chesstempo.com/ or this website.

Read this website http://www.chesstactics.org/

first thing to learn is tactics. when you play game play 15 minutes games, bullet will not help your development as a player, it actually hurt me. Get a good book on tactics, do tactics trainer, and play games. Once you master tactics and can play fairly well then you can learn openings and imbalances