500 rated beginner issues after 1000 rapid games played.

I'm still a beginner level player. For some reason, I keep losing. I learned every fundamental possible over the past 2 years that I could. When I implement them I still get beat. I even watch a lot videos. I stopped trying to learn openers or study because I read it's a waste of time if you're rated under 500 and to only focus on opening principles, fundamentals and blunders. I have played over 1000 games. I do resign games, but usually when I get upset. I can never seem to defend myself well enough. Usually other players get around my defences. Often times I feel stuck in middle game and every move feels like a bad move. I get locked up. If I just defend, they usually find a tactic. Not to say I don't blunder. If I do, it's because I literally can't see it before it happens. I play a lot of 30min time controlled games and 10min rapid. Should I get a coach?

Defensive play in chess is hard - if you keep defending then your opponent will eventually find a way through. I am not very good either, and I am winning most of my games, and that is because I play attacking chess. I am on the lookout for forks, pins, and discovered attacks - which allow you to snatch material while attacking another high value piece. Then I look for vulnerabilities - can I break my opponents center? Has he moved the c pawn which can create vulnerabilities on the king? Then when I go for the king I ignore everything to throw my pieces at him - it's often worth sacrificing a minor piece to break open any protective pawns. Seems to be working okay for me - plus it's fun...

Defensive play is hard. I can have allot of success with attacks, but I try to only attack when I'm developed so I won't end up with weak points in my game. I implement discovered attacks when I can and gain materteral doing this. When I do get the advantage and a lot of open space exists on the broad I get mentally frozen on what to do. I have lost games where my opponent loses most of their material and I have most of mine left. Some how they come out the gate playing amazing and I have no ins to finish the job. What's astonishing is they are capable of this after they blundered so much prior. This is what's confusing. It's like they play terrible, then randomly become harder to beat end game.

Learn and apply the most important principles of chess.
Always blunder-check your moves.
Solve tactics in the right way.
Analyze your games.
Study games of strong players.
Learn how to be more psychologically resilient.
Work on your time management skills.
Get a coach if you can.

I just read your profile, and i can say you're being too hard on you.

dont learn opening but DO learn opening principles. there are video lessons here on chess.com, watch them. the purpose of any opening is to serve as a transition to the middlegame with no disadvantages.. learn to open your game properly and gey yourself into the middlegame in one piece

then learn endgame patterns.. yeah "patterns" and try to "form" some winning endgame patterns in your middlegame. know basic checkmates, lucina and bridges and such.. learn how to checkmake with one rook, two rooks, a queen, two bishops, a bishop and a knight.. and the biggest part.. rook pawn endgames.

there is no study for middlegame part really, try solving puzzles to see simple "tactics", try to form them.

After 1000+ rapid games, you aren't a beginner. Just a very low rated player who does nothing substantial to improve your playing skills.

This does not mean that your case is hopeless, but rather that you have to change the way you are working to improve. And the cornerstone, is to improve your tactical play and vision. Solve as many puzzles you can either here, or at "the other place" which will make you more familiar with common tactics, and also help you avoiding major blunders.
Playing a lot of games without working won't improve your play- quite the opposite.

I see what you're saying but I do puzzles and they are pretty easy for me and have not helped me much in real world game play. I work on the things you noted but I lose because my board vision is bad. I have had times were I spend a while on a move but it still ends up badly for me. Is tactics really going to improve me at this level? I hear over and over.. "Just don't blunder and you will reach 1000" I do my best to use forks, utilizing checks to gain a advantage. I try to pay attention to discovered attacks. When I do all of this. For some reason my opponent sees EVERYTHING I'm trying to do but then when I do win its because of something they did and not from what I try to do. I have been saving my games were I don't understand how I lost so I can go over them and think of better moves. I know all the fundamental basics of where I need to start. It's just not working for me. It's like I'm having issuing retaining what I learned from previous games. After I took a brake from chess I completely forgot how to defend myself from various queen attacks and had to go back and re learn what to do.

Is opening principles not controlling the center? Developing and activating as many pieces as possible? Castling at least before move 10? Connecting my rooks ect. I'm always trying to push and control the center, but my opponents also understand these concepts. I win most my games using the rook and queen and sometimes even in combination with my Bishop. The puzzles are easy they just don't translate to improving my game play it feels like. I still do them when I can however.

Hi there, I'm new to chess too with about 1300 elo rating, I'm in no position to tell you how to play but maybe I could contribute alittle to details you may have missed , since when we play we tend to not see what someone else sees in review of our games . I noticed 2 things in your recent games, one is that you fail to calculate the amount of attackers and amount of defenders when aiming at a piece or pawn . You could try to make calculations few times before you initiate the attack on a piece and see what's surrounding and protecting it . I also noticed you blunder a piece sometimes because you didn't know the space you will be occupying already is being occupied by the enemy pieces , for example in a game you activated the horse into a space where it was already aimed at by opponents horse . Also when you implement a tactic I think your opponent doesn't usually respond to what you expected, I also have this issue and what I try to do from now on is to consider their other responses to the forcing move that I am making . I hope I could help even if for a tiny bit

I looked at your last few loses, and there are a few things you do consistently: 1. is blundering you routinely move your pieces to square where the piece can be just taken. You need to blunder check your intended moves too see if it is a blunder. It also seems like you don't ask two fundamental question too yourself after every move. The first question is why did my opponent make this move? This will help you see threats before it is too late, and help you get into your opponents head as too what their ideas are. The second question is what is my opponent's best response if I make my intended move? This will involve calculation, and help you find any holes in your plan or intended move that could be exploited by your opponent.

2. Is that you miss tactics. You routinely did not see 1 to 3 move tactics in the games. These would have won material or the game (in your game against 811rajat you missed a mate in 1). Instead your opponent was able to get away with making the blunder.

3. You let your opponent dictate the position, and are playing too passively. In one of the loses you literally let your opponent control the opening even though you were better developed, and had your king already castled. You let your opponent make your pieces bad, and not exploit the weaknesses in their position. You need to play more aggressively. Now that does not mean to attack all the time, playing aggressively and attacking are two different things.

Here is my analysis of two of your recent loses:

How to improve: 1. Is to blunder check, and ask yourself the questions I mentioned to yourself every move. This will eliminate many mistakes, and allow you to keep more material on the board. Here are some resources on working on reducing blunders:

Chess Vibes How to Blunderless Video

Chess Vibes This is why you keep blundering

Chess Vibes How to Lose at Chess

2. The best way to improve on tactics is by doing puzzles and/or a tactics book. I know you said earlier that the puzzles are too easy for you, and they don't seem to help. The thing is that if they are that easy for you then you would see them in your games, and as you keep on doing puzzles on the site as your puzzle rating goes up then the puzzles will get harder. Also puzzles only work on a few aspects of a chess game. So improving 200 rating points in puzzles will not equal even 200 rating point improvement in rapid or blitz. What the puzzle rating increase will show is that you are better at two things. 1. is pattern recognition, and 2. calculation. Both of which are essential to improve to get better. The pattern recognition will help you see when a tactic may be on the board, and in what general direction you should calculate to accomplish the tactic. Calculation will help every move though. From seeing what plans your opponent may have, and to assessing their threats. It also helps in calculating exchanges in games to see not only if the exchange is good for you, but also in what order to do all the capturing. It also helps in determining if your intended move is good or not (remember you should be always calculating your opponents best response to your move). Here are some resources beyond puzzles that can help:

Chess Vibes 3 steps to solving problems

How to recognize mating nets

Chess Vibes Puzzle Rush Video

Chess Vibes Matting Patterns Video

Defending pieces

Hanging Pieces

Chess Tactics Definitions

3. When it comes to improving on being to passive this is focused around two things. First is you should be looking for forcing moves. These are moves that force your opponent to respond a certain way, or deal with a particular problem of your choosing not theirs. The second way to improve is to always strive to make sure all your pieces are good. Don't let your opponent make your pieces bad for nothing. If they are able to make your piece bad then get compensation for that somehow. Here are few resources on improving pieces:

Good and Bad pieces

In addition to these resources here are a few playlist from the Chess Vibes Channel that can also be good for you to go through:

Chess Vibes Beginner Course (Videos 10 through 17 are a must, videos 3-6 and 9 if needed)

Break Past Rating Level playlist

Game Analysis Playlist

Chess Vibes Strategy and Tactics Playlist (Has a ton of great videos although many of them are beyond your skill level right now. Watch the ones that interest you if I did not link them above separately)

Chess Vibes Endgame Course (Videos 1-2, 5, 7, and 16 only for now).

Hope this helps