How can I improve?

I am 10. I am around 1800 in USCF 1770 to be exact. I just had an 18 point drop from the nationals. I have been stuck at the 1700-1800 range for about 10 months now. I do lots of puzzles every day, I have just got the puzzle machine badge yesterday. My coaches and my dad say my weakness is on positional. I sometimes have the wrong plan, sometimes my pawn is weak, and sometimes I get attacked because my pieces are on the wrong side of the board. Does anyone recommend anything I could use to learn, and study positional? 

Sincerely,

Celine.

Read Michael Stean, Simple Chess.

watch chess talk

if you want to really improve and can afford it, you should get a good chess coach. You are already 1800 at 10, you can improve a lot at that age. I would not be surprised if you get to 2200 by the time you reach 12-13 and possibly higher.

Study books on endgames. Once you understand what is good in an endgame that will point you to where you want to finish out the middlegame. I once had a US Open game against a weaker player and afterwards he said he felt good that it was materially even past move 30. I responded that he was correct on that but that he lost the game on move 6 when he let me capture is knight on h3 and give him a fatal pawn weakness. I just traded down to go into an ending that exploited that weakness and his desperate attempt to avoid that is when he finally lost material.

Losing points at Nationals makes sense. You're playing against a bunch of under-rated quickly improving players. Anyone in your rating class is a serious player. I looked back at my tournament record where I started as an 1100 as a junior in high school and hit 1900 in college 3 years later with a lot of tournaments in between. Eventually hit Expert for a while as an adult later on. Once I was an 1800 I had tournaments where I lost 57 and 66 points. I also had some tremendous gainers.

Key thing is to recognize the weakest part of your game and work on it. Your weakest part will then eventually shift. You need to recognize that and work on the weak parts.

Spend time after your games looking at what you could have done better including WHY a certain move was better.

I would read endgame books so you can improve during endgames. A book I would recommend to read is Theoretical Rook Endgames by Samuel Shankland. It helped me a lot in tournaments when I had some rook endgames, but otherwise you can read other endgame books.

Chess Structures, a Grandmaster Guide by Mauricio Flores Rios.

The book just came out a couple of months ago, but already you’ve read it and found benefit in tournament games. I’m impressed.

study books like My System or chess Praxis by Nimzowitsch. Basic Chess endings first, then Nimzowtsch. During the third yr, learn opening theroy and finally find your style. then choose what openins you like to play. I recommend this