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As you can see, making decisions based only on general principles and ideas leads to errors and ultimately loses games. To improve your approach to the game, and your results these are the steps I would like you to take: Do not abandon fundamental principles, but look for a move that's based on a good idea and leads to a specific follow-up in order to achieve a specific goal in the given position (rather than making a move only to fulfill an idea). For example, instead of thinking "I will play Re1 because a rook belongs on an open file," you would approach it as, "Re1, putting the rook on an open file, will enable (moves X, Y, Z) in order to (start a kingside attack / win a pawn / etc.)." Identify specific threats, both for you and for your opponent. Come up with several candidate moves. Then identify candidate responses for your opponent to each of your candidate moves. Look for the best move for both sides. Calculate variations. Practice doing this on every move. To emphasize the point again: Get into the habit of calculating. I'm not even asking you to calculate accurately. That's important, but it's the next step. The first step is to train yourself to calculate, period. Best of luck, and I hope that following these steps will improve your skill and results.

ONLY PLAY LONGER TIME CONTROLS SO AS TO GO OVER ALL THE QUESTIONS AND ALSO CALCULATE TO THE END OF ALL THE VARIATIONS. 1-END GAME STUDY. 2-TACTICS 30 MINS A DAY. 3-PLAY L7 TO AND PRACTICING ALL THE QUESTIONS IS THE TOP PRIORITY TO GET IT INTO MY HEAD THAT THAT IS WHAT MUST BE DONE ON EVERY MOVE.

MASTER THOUGHTS ON EVALUATION. First thing that catches the eye is material: who is up or is it equal? Up in material means extra options: attack, give stuff back, or as an old friend once said, "extra pieces make excellent defenders." If material is equal, the second thing to notice is King safety. If one sides King is weak, then that becomes the focus of the entire position, usually. ( There are of course exceptions.) If material is equal and both sides King are reasonably safe, the next thing noticed is quality of pieces and pawns, meaning, are any of the pawns for either side weak? (doubleds, triples, iso, backward, etc.) And are any pieces weak (rooks stuck in corners, Knights stranded on the rim, bishops with many pawns on the same color, misplaced Queen, etc.) Tarrasch was mostly right when he said that one bad piece means your whole game is bad. By now, having gone through these factors, one should be able to evaluate a position more clearly.

I basically concentrate on n-forks, b-pins, and r-xrays. After opening development and if position doesn't necessitate defense, candidate moves should start with looking for n-fork obvious possibilities. Then durable b-pins. And always rooks opposite opponent K or Q. Then calculation can start with how to make it work if possible. Usually looking for some sort of removing a defender. After awhile, looking for fork and pin opportunities and getting used to removing a defender often gets to be a regular game time habit. Calculation and tactics have to be based on a strong understanding of undefended pieces and pawns. If you can’t see both your own and your opponents' undefended pieces and pawns, then your game will be stillborn. Don’t play “hope chess.” This is when you hope your attack or calculations are going to get the job done, but you don’t factor in your opponent’s possibilities. Most long calculations are riddled with errors. As the great Bent Larsen said, “Long variation, wrong variation.” With this in mind, you should expect mistakes if you go for a long calculation. It’s normal, even for very strong players. If you don’t look hard for your opponent’s best replies, then all your calculations will be faulty. Don’t live in a dream world. If you wish to improve, and you wish to find long, exciting calculations, you have to be honest with yourself. Do NOT count on what you want your opponent to do (this chess disease goes something like this: “I’ll attack his queen, he will move a pawn, and I’ll take the queen!”). Instead, count on what your opponent's best move is. Even if your opponent doesn’t know what to do, YOU need to know what he should do! If you can’t do this, your calculations will usually fail. Thus, be it calculation or a calm positional situation, look for your opponent’s very best replies. The acquisition of patterns makes or breaks the chess player. The more tactical and positional patterns you master, the better your calculation will be. Experience is everything! Don’t expect Herculean results if you haven’t put in long hours of study and practice.

DAVID PRUESS ON TACTICS. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mvkuji08dMc&index=2&list=PLCSLcYMvj-sFxn5WXe46lFvy0Z3bTv_pu https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFl6WABqgC0&list=PLCSLcYMvj-sFxn5WXe46lFvy0Z3bTv_pu&index=3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dtdxXbfc0M&index=4&list=PLCSLcYMvj-sFxn5WXe46lFvy0Z3bTv_pu DAVIS PRUESS ON ANALYSIS. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWZCi1-qCSE&list=PLCSLcYMvj-sFxn5WXe46lFvy0Z3bTv_pu DAVID PRUESS ON PATTERNS. https://www.chess.com/video/player/more-essential-patterns-for-success DAVIS PRUESS ON TACTICAL ELEMENTS. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dtdxXbfc0M&index=4&list=PLCSLcYMvj-sFxn5WXe46lFvy0Z3bTv_pu ROBBIE ON THE WEAK COLOUR COMPLEX. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHWqUujMH64 ROBBIE ON OPENING SCHEMES. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoIRwIKiFqQ JOHN BARTHOLOWMEW ON UNDEFENDED PIECES. (IN A LIVE GAME.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ao9iOeK_jvU JOHN BARTHOLOWMEW ON TRADES. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kdjSqNcViw JONATHAN SCHRANTZ ON IDENTIFYING AND CONTROLING KEY SQUARES. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVBxUIDoy5Q JONATHAN SCHRANTZ ON PAWN STRUCTURES - THE MAROCZY BIND. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVGKrrucJbo JONATHAN SCHRANTZ ON PROPHYLAXIS. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P8CSC0w6Is YASSER SEIRAWAN ON STRATEGIC IDEAS IN THE OPENING. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ohf79-nlekc SIMON WILLIAMS ON IMPROVEMENT. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZC2m4uJvFQ SIMON WILLIAMS ON CREATING THREATS. https://www.chess.com/video/player/time-creating-threats CREATING AND USING HOLES. 63 MINUTES IN. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKUG7qm4ZkM&t=1024s JEREMY SILMAN ON NOTICING CHANGE ON THE BOARD. https://www.chess.com/article/view/noticing-change-or-opportunity-on-the-chessboard JEREMY SILMAN ON MASTERING SQUARES PART 1,2,3,4,5,6 AND 7. https://www.chess.com/article/view/mastering-squares-part-1 https://www.chess.com/article/view/mastering-squares-part-two https://www.chess.com/article/view/mastering-squares-part-3 https://www.chess.com/article/view/mastering-squares-part-4 https://www.chess.com/article/view/mastering-squares-part-5 https://www.chess.com/article/view/mastering-squares-part-6 https://www.chess.com/article/view/mastering-squares-part-7 DANNY RENSCH ON ALL OPENING THEMES. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHMX5HNVqhQ DANNY RENSCH ON AMATEUR HOUR. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7pc5RvGKg0 MAGNUS CARLSON V 1600 PLAYER. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LlJosnaOQk&t=211s