how to gain elo in chess

Stop blundering. Sounds stupid like “duh obviously” but at low levels if you can contain your blundering (mostly hanging pieces) then your rating shoots up a few hundred points. Double or triple check each time you go to make a move that you’re not leaving anything undefended or moving a piece into harms way. Play time controls where you can really take your time and see the whole board clearly. Rapid is good, maybe with an increment. A combination of that and doing puzzles does wonders for your game.

Once you reach a stable rating a few hundred points higher, try to start learning some openings and find your play style. You’ll get more comfortable playing in familiar positions and will be able to avoid opening tricks as you learn them. You can try to start learning now, but honestly I think at anything below 800 what you need is to just practice opening principles. A lot of people spend too much time trying to watch YouTube videos on opening theory and then don’t understand the plans of the opening and fail in the middle game.

Focus on taking the center, developing your pieces with knights before bishops, castling early and often, connecting the rooks, and not hanging pieces. Try to do at least 10 puzzles per day if you can. Really take your time and try to get every single one right. If you want to do more and don’t have a chesscom subscription, you can make a lichess account just for the infinite puzzles for free. If you have friends who play, try and play over the board. Best of luck on your journey!