Ok so I like chess. It's awesome but the fact of the matter is that I stink at it. I need a practincal training routine that I can concentrate on, that will make me better. So I call upon the infinate wisdom of the chess.com comunity- keep in mind I'm serious about this, so unless you are going to post at least a paragraph about how I can improve my chess don't post anything! Thanks in advanced for all the sage advince I know Im going to recieve.

Hey zxb, I am not entirely sure what you want to train specifically, but I can tell you how I use chess.com to improve.

The first thing we need to know is how not to be on the loosing end right out of the opening, because if this is the case the middle- and endgame are of little concern. Therefore I pick a couple of openings I find interesting. Say the center gambit (1.e4 e5 2. d4 exd5 ..), an anti-sicillian, and the Tarrasch in the French Defense.

Next I start a bunch of (correspondence) games with me playing White and e4. As the opening progresses I consult an opening database, trying to think about the reason behind each move.

When we reach the middle-game I think about what major pieces will be the best given that a certain pawn structure will arise in the endgame, and of course try to control key-squares. I also think about which pieces should be used a blockers and how to gain mobility.

The endgame, well the endgame, that is about calculation and experience! So read a book and do some problems on it! =)

In terms of blitz, I use it to test out openings. Of course people tend to deviate quickly, so after the game I go back and see what the best response was according to theory..

I hope it helped!

P.S. If you haven't read it already, you should read the classic My System. Even reading excerpts of it will improve your game!

1. Get a book on tactics, like Winning Chess Tactics by Seirawan. Work it through. You need to know every tactic there is before practicing these.

2. Solve chess tactics, here in tactics trainer or elsewhere, every day. 15 min every day is better then 3 hours one day per week. Take the buss every day? Buy a tactics problem book and keep solving them instead of looking out the window doing nothing.

3. Get an endgame book like Silmans Complete Endgame Course. Study the stuff up to C class section atleast and your endgame technique should be set.

4. Solve endgame problems on chesstempo every day. 2 for free. 20 per day for very little per month. Your choice.

5. Start thinking about what openings you like. Once you decided, get a book on each one so you have a complete repetoire as black and as white. Try understanding your openings and keep playing the same ones until you learn them deeper and deeper.

6. Get a basic book on strategy, maybe something like Winning Chess Strategies. Work it through.

7. Once your opening, endgame and basic strategic understand is at a good level you can go all out and concentrate on your calculation technique and tactics.

8. While you're doing all this, play many LONG timed games. The longer the better. No 15 min is not long. Atleast 30min or an hour.

I think the trick is to learn a bit of everything as you see so you don't have a weakest link. Because it is the weakest link, be it tactics, strategy or opening, that will keep you back.

I personally did something like the above and from not knowing how pieces move (1200 or something? or worse) to almost 1544 in 14 months or so.

This is valuable advice. I shall not waste it!

Whenever I hear "serious chess study", Dvoretsky comes to my mind. Other than that, I think rigorous tactics training is a must in every type of training regime.