How to determine what areas need study beyond blunders?

I would appreciate any advice that anyone can offer on determining what to study once you only blunder never or rarely (in rapid games)? I feel I am really struggling to make any progress at all because now that my rating is above 1000, both I and the players I match up with are (per the post-game review engine) really not making blunders anymore, or if so then they are true brain fog oversights and not for lack of tactical knowledge.

To give an example, as I have been studying in past months, I would take steps like identifying that I often blunder into knight forks, and so I practiced against that and then after I cleaned that part of my game up, I'd move on to something else. But now that the blunders are gone, and the engine regularly rates my games 1200-1300 in strength, but I really don't beat anyone at all unless they are rated below 1020. My gains have completely plateaued since I can't beat anyone at or above my level and I just feel I can't identify any weaknesses which to me is red flag that I'm really missing something important.

I am currently practicing endgame maneuvering because that is one area of play where I have definitely lost some games I could have won, but beyond that, I really need any help I can get. Are there complex additional tactics I should look up lessons on, or else is there a method to learn how to look ahead by more moves? I have plateaued on being able to pass puzzles as well, I simply can't figure out anything rated above 2100 or so, I used to learn a lot from puzzles but now I can't understand what makes those solutions work either.

Just went to the last reviewed game in your profile and per the post-game review, it claims you made 4 blunders and 3 mistakes. I don't think that aligns with what you are claiming here.

The thing is there is no starting point nor a point where a gate exists blocking you from studying anything you want. Study anything you want if you haven't studied it before.

Have you worn out a good tactics book? Have you studied the endgame? If you haven't studied something and it tickles your fancy, just try it. That's part of being self taught. The thing is, most answers you get here will be wrong because most people won't know what they're talking about when it comes to coaching (like me) or if they do have some insight, they won't have the inclination to do that work for you for free and will simply give you a lazy answer. Therefore, you'll be left in the same spot; sifting through information, having no idea what is right and what is wrong. Even advice you get here, if it just feels like good advice, try it.

TLDR; my advice is to just try new things, don't limit yourself.

Maybe it's just the type of players I've been getting matched up against, but I haven't been played a new opening in forever. At lower levels like 800 people were trying all kinds of things out, and it was a bit dynamic, but every since passing 1000 I in all honesty cannot remember the last time I saw anything except book-standard king or queen pawn opening done by my opponents.

Just went to the last reviewed game in your profile and per the post-game review, it claims you made 4 blunders and 3 mistakes. I don't think that aligns with what you are claiming here.

The thing is there is no starting point nor a point where a gate exists blocking you from studying anything you want. Study anything you want if you haven't studied it before.

Have you worn out a good tactics book? Have you studied the endgame? If you haven't studied something and it tickles your fancy, just try it. That's part of being self taught. The thing is, most answers you get here will be wrong because most people won't know what they're talking about when it comes to coaching (like me) or if they do have some insight, they won't have the inclination to do that work for you for free and will simply give you a lazy answer. Therefore, you'll be left in the same spot; sifting through information, having no idea what is right and what is wrong. Even advice you get here, if it just feels like good advice, try it.

TLDR; my advice is to just try new things, don't limit yourself.

Well, to be honest, I really hate the studying, so focusing on something I know I need to learn motivates me to actually do it. I think the advice I've been getting to learn how to see the game from the other side, as well as learning to analyze overall positional play, will be the way to go because it will help me get better at understanding the point of view of the author of a given lesson, too. The problem I have with understanding the other player's intentions extends to coaches, even the lessons where they have a tone of voice like they are explaining to a baby I really have trouble seeing the board the way they describe it, my eyes just glaze over because I cannot really see the emerging structure and threats the way they do. I find super helpful the diagrams/animations sometimes used where they use lots of arrows to show a whole upcoming sequence of moves. Lichess' analyzer does this and I love that feature of it.

Well, to be honest, I really hate the studying, so focusing on something I know I need to learn motivates me to actually do it. I think the advice I've been getting to learn how to see the game from the other side, as well as learning to analyze overall positional play, will be the way to go because it will help me get better at understanding the point of view of the author of a given lesson, too. The problem I have with understanding the other player's intentions extends to coaches, even the lessons where they have a tone of voice like they are explaining to a baby I really have trouble seeing the board the way they describe it, my eyes just glaze over because I cannot really see the emerging structure and threats the way they do. I find super helpful the diagrams/animations sometimes used where they use lots of arrows to show a whole upcoming sequence of moves. Lichess' analyzer does this and I love that feature of it.

@BigChessplayer665 Thank you for the insight, I appreciate hearing your approach. Do you have any advice on seeing the board/doing the analysis in that time frame that you recommend? For me personally, there is no way I can do an analysis in 30 sec. or even in a few minutes. A few minutes is how long each and every puzzle takes me (I only get +5 to my puzzle rating each one I solve due to this ). So I can't imagine doing an entire game review in a few minutes, my analysis usually takes 10-15 min. I guess the problem I'm having, if you look at a few of my games, is that I am losing even 30 and 60 min games on time, so with the speed my brain is currently working at, there's just no way in-game that I can do the level of calculation necessary to avoid the mistakes I find during analysis.

Sort of related, I would also appreciate any input on how you make plans. It's like you said, usually I may start with some sort of plan but my opponent sets up a checkmate threat usually within the first 15 moves, so then the rest of the game I just find myself trying to survive that. Generally if I win, which is getting quite rare these days, it's because I find a good counterattack against an overly aggressive player. I can't remember the last time I won due to an actual plan of my own working, I always get countered doing that.

When it comes to being able to calculate that comes with working on puzzles/tactics and experience in games. There really is no substitute for that. It is like building a muscle (although this one is in your brain). As mentioned earlier learning when you are in a critical situation which would necessitate calculating extensively, and when you don't will help greatly. This really comes with mostly experience of playing games. Overall chess knowledge does help, but experience is the most important thing with that.

When it comes to time management everyone will do it differently. Finding what works best for you will take some time and practice to find. Of course take as much time as needed in critical positions, but most positions are not critical in a game. Playing off intuition well requires knowledge of the game. This is built with studying the game. This is something that you have some of, but your at the rating where everyone has done that. It takes a greater amount of knowledge and skill to improve the same amount you did when you where under 1000 rating. The resources I included above will help greatly with your knowledge of the game. Playing with only intuition is not really advisable unless under a lot of time pressure. Your intuition will help guide you throughout the game in telling you 1. When you have to calculate out a lot, and when you don't have to do it as much. 2. Your intuition will help tell you which plans and moves to calculate out, and which ones you do not have to because they are not good. This will help in your time management also. I often find my self in time pressure because I took the time to calculate out a lot more than my opponent. This often puts me in severe time pressure in the endgame. Knowing what to do in the endgame is very beneficial, and can help in converting those wins even when I don't have much time left. In those situations I mostly don't calculate beyond making sure it is not a tactical blunder, and play a good move like getting the rook to the 7th rank, or activating the king towards the center of the board. I do play with a increment so after a few quick moves I at least have a few seconds to calculate something if need be, but I am going almost exclusively on intuition in what direction to calculate, and am only calculating out one plan or idea usually (due to time).

When it comes to dealing with threats, not all threats in a game need to be countered. If it is a one move threat that can be easily countered when played, or if they play it your response will improve your position then ignore the threat and continue on with your plans. If the threat is something that needs to be countered ask yourself does it have to be countered next move, or do you have time to counter it later. If it can be countered later then it is usually good to continue on with your plan, and keep an eye on that threat. If you are constantly getting in getting in positions in the first 15 moves that require you to fight desperately protect your king from checkmate then that signals at least one of two things. 1. Is that you have not valuing king safety. 2. Is that you are not developed. From the two games that I analyzed I did not see a problem with king safety (at least not a significant one). I did see a problem with development though. You can't defend properly if you are not developed. You may also not be defending properly too, or missing moves that would stop the attack. I suspect the biggest issue is that you are not developed enough to counter the threat properly. If your opponent is fully developed and playing with all their pieces and you are only playing with half. Then you are going to be in for a ruff time. This is probably also why you can get countered easily.

When it comes to making plans, and executing them. That will come as you learn about the game, and study it. The strategy section in my reply above and the tactics/strategy playlist will help greatly with that. Also don't underestimate the importance of knowing the endgame. Knowing what will come next when you get that advantage, and having a good idea of what to do will be instrumental in converting your won games. Also will help with the time pressure too. You will be able to handle it better at least, and be calmer once you get to the endgame. I will also include a of game of mine that I lost. I added notes on my thought process during critical parts of the game, when I made my plans, when those plans changed, and also how I handled my time pressure. I lost the game due to blundering in time pressure I was in a lot of time pressure (from about move 20 in the 80 move game):

You might also want to watch videos of rating climbs or speed runs from masters on Youtube. They explain their thought process in the moves they are making in the games.

Chess Vibes Rapid Rating Climb

Hope this helps.