anyone have any recommendations for study techniques?

just wondering what you guys have done to expand your skills. i have  felt stuck at sub 400 for a while and im trying to improve

Looking at your recent game history one probable issue is you aren’t using your time. You’re playing a Rapid time control and treating it like a Blitz game. Have you tried playing longer time controls and actually using your time to think about each position and do some calculating and evaluating what is going on in each position?

Your thought process for now needs to be focused on ensuring you get you pieces out safely and centralized, look for tactics to win material and avoid losing material by ensuring your pieces are adequately defended and calculating against threats. As you progress other factors will need to be considered but for now it’s all about making safe active moves and capitalizing on your opponents blunders, and blunder they will.

My study advice is;

Play Daily chess. Each position do the above as best you can. Don’t rush any moves.

Solve puzzles every day. At least spend 10-15 minutes a day solving puzzles. Never guess answers, calculate until you know you have it solved. If you get any wrong review it until you understand what you missed and why you likely missed it (unfamiliar pattern, miscalculation, ect).

ChessAble has some great free courses on tactics, endgames, and short opening lines. I recommend looking into those.

The biggest reason people struggle in lower-level chess is because of blunders. They make them in almost every game.

A mistake can instantly put you in a bad position, no matter how well you played earlier: if you had great opening knowledge, great positional skills, great endgame skills, whatever; a single mistake can change everything (you lose a piece or get checkmated).

So, how do you avoid blunders? Follow this simple algorithm:

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While avoiding blunders is crucial, I also share a few basic principles with my students. These principles help them figure out what to do in each part of the game - the opening, the middlegame, and the endgame. Understanding these simple principles is like having a map for your moves. I provide my students with more advanced algorithms that incorporate these fundamental principles. When you use this knowledge along with being careful about blunders, you're not just getting better at defending. You're also learning a well-rounded approach to chess. Keep in mind, chess is not just about not making mistakes; it's about making smart and planned moves to outsmart your opponent.

Post your game with question at thechessforum.com

Blunder checking and analysis of lost games.

Improving Your Chess - Resources for Beginners and Beyond.....

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/improving-your-chess-resources-for-beginners-and-beyond

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell

Study won't help you. What you need to do: don't play random moves. Instead, slow down and think. Try to play good moves.

I checked your last lost game. You started with 15 minutes, and after 42 moves you had more time than you started with. But you blundered all your pieces and got checkmated.

You need to make an effort to stop 1-move blunders. Nothing else matters.

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