Chess Plateau

  I'm stuck under 400 elo. At one point I thought I was getting better tell I got worse again. I'm playing 15 min games so I can slow down and think but still struggling with blunders. I did get better from 100 elo, my goal is to be 700 but it seems impossible. People are hard to beat around 400 elo can't win enough games to keep a score. Allot of the time I can't figure out what my opponent is trying to do to me before getting mated. I get outplayed ALLOT. I have gone the route of just defending pieces, controlling center ect the entire game but that just stagnates me with limited development tell my opponent breaks my pawn structure and moves in with knights for example. I'm reaching 700 games played over the past year. Chess has humbled me into feeling like an insect. I guess this is more of a self defeating rant lol. 

I feel you, since I started getting back into chess 400 was my wall for a bit. now its 650-750. What helped was no joke this video series.
Building Habits

I heavily recommend you giving it a watch. The most important thing I took away from it is that while watching is how to go from opening to the middlegame better. ie the tip about how to use your rooks. It was a simple bit of advice that never sunk in till I saw the series. As well as the realization that people blunder ... alot. Especially at our level. So instead of crafting intricate plans just play good/decent moves that makes your position just a little bit stronger and wait for an opponent blunder. Then trade off pieces as fast as you can to simplify the position. 

What's weird is this is one of the first videos I watched getting into Chess on defending my pieces. His videos are long though. Wish he could summarizes his tips.

Check out the video I linked, and pause at 22s into the video. That lists all the rules he is following at the 400 ELO level. The rest of the video should be watched just to get a feel for what kinda habits he's talking about.

You don't really know opening principles for starters. You try too much to play Bc4 - Ng4 thing. Even if it works, most of the time, you will get a rook and a pawn for your 2 minor pieces, which is bad because you lose a lot of time moving those pieces that you just exchange. I see that you lose some games where the opponent's queen just pick up everything.
There are videos on Youtube on opening principles and on how to defend against early queen attacks.

On top of everything, even though you play 15|10 games, you still play speed chess basically because you get losing positions with 15 minutes on the clock, you play way too fast. That is another thing you need to improve on.

Yha, that is some good criticisms. I do get frustrated and I start playing fast the more I play.

I didn't mean to criticize you, perhaps my tone wasn't as I wanted it to be. I apologize if it sounded too harsh. It was supposed to be an input that might help you out.

Maybe you'll find this useful:

https://www.chess.com/blog/nklristic/the-beginners-tale-first-steps-to-chess-improvement

There are some tips for you, along with some useful YouTube content. All of that might help you to improve at least somewhat.

As for playing fast, we all do it sometimes, but it is a skill worth improving on. Because if you play your game in 3 minutes and the opponent use 14 for instance, you are at a big disadvantage, even if you are a better player.

No no, I don't feel insulted. I saw it as positive criticism. As in I can see your point.

I greatly appreciate your time advice and help.

No problem. If you need anything else, feel free to ask.

Reducing one-move blunders is a BIG step to improve. It's good that you play 15min games, but try to take your time after every move and ask yourself two questions:

1. What does this move by my opponent do? (=are there threats?)

2. Does my (intended) move improve my position (=don't I hang a piece? Do I develop my own pieces? Do I attack anything in my opponent's camp?

Good luck on your journey!

Propeshka: I like what you wrote but my question is, what if you can't see the moves your questions ask.. for example if I ask myself... Does this improve my position? (I really don't know what the position is supposed to be) If I ask do I attack the pieces in the opponents camp? (What if you're at a point in the game where everything my opponent has is protected?) Like the OP I get stuck in one place, I get a few wins and start feeling good. Then I'll chock up like 6 strait losses to silly blunders and not being able to read what my opponent is doing.

If you can't tell what actually improves your position, this means that you do not possess some elementary chess knowledge and do not know some of the concepts of: material, king safety, space, pawn structure, piece activity, time, etc.

Basically, you need to learn about chess by doing something of the following: Watch some instructional YouTube content (as this is free, I've mentioned some of that in that article I've linked), buy a chess book that is in accordance with your rating (this costs some money), buy a premium on a site like this and use their video material and whatnot, buy some chessable course, etc.

In the beginning I would advise trying some free material you can find, before deciding on spending the money, but the choice is yours.

Along with that, going through your own games and learning from your mistakes will do some good things for your chess. But it should go along with some of the things I've mentioned (studying by free video material, or by books etc.), because in order to learn from your mistakes you need to be able to identify them in the first place (by acquiring chess knowledge by means I've mentioned above).

It is kind of a synergy, and in order for it to work, you need to do different things. That is why many people don't know how to analyze their games. Because they can barely learn anything from them if they do not know some of the basic chess concepts.

I see your point.

Whenever you're stuck and don't know what to do, a good method is to make your worst placed piece better. How do you do that?

First, you follow basic opening principles (get your pieces out, castle, connect your rooks, don't bring your queen out too early, etc.)

Then, let's say you did all that and there is still a piece you didn't move (e.g. there's a rook still on a1. Rooks like open files because they are more active there, they can attack something and support their own forces. The center files (d/e) tend to open up quicker than other files, so it's often a good idea to put the rooks on the d- and e-files (like Ra1-d1 and Rf1-e1).

This will become clear with more experience. But following the basic rules of development, king safety and playing in the center is always a good guideline.

@TheMadDrummer99

Oh and another thing, all of what I've said, you can scratch all of that if bullet is what you will play. You can't improve by playing that time control. It is just too fast. If improvement is what you seek, longer time controls are your friends.

I've remade my acct a bunch of times because of the shame of abysmal rating...

Novice level rating is nothing to be ashamed of. Even if you stay there all your life, but enjoy playing, it is still nothing to be ashamed of.

But if you want to go for improvement, you can do that as well.

Yeh well I get scared to play rapid.. I know I'm gonna get my butt kicked repeatedly.

I can understand that sentiment. But if improvement is what you seek, then losing bunch of games and improving upon the mistakes is more or less necessary. In the end, it is just a game, though I admit there are some losses that can be more devastating than others.

Still, positive things outweigh negative ones by far, at least that is my experience.

My thinking is, I have restarted my acct many times because the whole rating system causes me to big out. Pl