@RSK_Asherz Your advice always has some nuggets of wisdom. I think my main problem is: FINDING A PLAN. I usually find it easier to analyze someone else's game than my own. When watching the US Chess Champs a few weeks ago, my analysis was not bad. But when I look at my own game, everything is wrong on the board.
@Argammonchess Do you think that is the main problem? Am I overdoing it and thus reaching a stage of burnout? The reason I started playing so many games was because of boredom, and because I thought practice makes perfect.
I need advice from some experienced players.
I always have these periods of improvement, and then I plateau... and then I book up and I start improving again.
But in the last month or so, I have had a decline in game quality. Perhaps, the near-radioactive Mumbai summer heat is frying my brain, but this excuse doesn't erase the fact that my game quality has declined in the last six weeks.
I have been achieving the following and am not proud of it: timing-out in many games, not being able to focus, not being able to make a choice when it's my move. I mean, the only time I am confident is when I have to make the first move (which is usually 1. e4) or if I see a mating combination. Every other move I have to make I see nothing but blunders and disaster.
I have been having such a terrible month at chess, that I got Artur Yusupov's first book in his nine-volume series. It's amazing. I am scoring really well in the tests at the end of each chapter. But somehow I can't apply the knowledge to a game. I am also solving a book of composed puzzles, and that's going really well, too. So, I know I have the concepts down. But I am lost when it comes to applying them in a game.
Any advice will be appreciated.