Well, do what you find to be most amusing. Chess should be fun. But a player below 1400 generally lose to many pawns and pieces. A focus on non guarded pieces could bring you easily to 1500.
The real chess progress is in the endgame study. But if all your endgames is a piece down it would not help.
The best would be a mix of tactics, strategy, and basic endgames. 25 puzzles a day is more than enough. The goal of puzzles is to improve your calculation/visualization and pattern recognition. You need to learn core strategic concepts, though, or you will have nothing to "aim" for after the opening. That's why people can rattle off 6 or 7 opening moves and then have no clue how to proceed. You should definitely stick with daily games as well and mix in some longer live games when you have time for them.
This month I'm doing 10 daily games of 1 move minimum per day, followed by 30 minutes of tactics daily. So its basically 1 hour and 30 minutes of chess moves followed by 30 minutes of tactics. So far I have only lost 2 games and its because I didn't play the endgame very well. This whole month ima be playing daily games, hopefully I win most of them. At the end of the month I will look at the games i lost and see what they all have in common. If a specific area stands out, then I will change my training accordingly. So far based on those two games I need to also focus on my endgame. But I'll see at the end of the month. This month I just really want to play games for fun and to see where my true chess strength is. But thank you both for the advice.
train tactics at least 20 minutes a day. but try not to skip a day if you can help it. also if you can't solve it in 2 mins, look up the solution and remember why it worked. the point is to see as many tactical patterns in a short period of time. you are building a database in your head of tactics that you can subconsciously tap into so you don't have to "solve" a position again next time you see it, but know the solution by heart. if you want to solve something regardless of time, then set aside a different amount of time for that.
It all depends on the goals that you set for yourself. If improvement is the only thing you're after, tactics are the way to go. But I'd highly encourage you to keep it fun for yourself. If you do tactics 3 times a week, you'll also improve, just a little bit slower.
There's no one stopping you from doing more than this. If you really enjoy reading about strategy, why not indulge yourself? Read a strategy book and try to understand the general ideas that are presented. You don't need to understand every move in a game to notice how a bishop in an open position is a strong piece.
Openings and endgames can wait. If you have more understanding of strategic ideas you should be able to make decent opening moves. If you reach an endgame a piece or 2 or more pawns down there's no real point in studying any endgame technique. When you start to notice it happening more often that one side is only one pawn up, maybe start looking up the basic ideas of king and pawn endings (opposition, key squares) and at some point maybe the absolute basics of rook endgames. I like Silman's book 'Complete Endgame Course' cause it puts what you need to know about certain endgames in chapters based on playing strength, so you can easily see about when you should start learning more.
On the daily games...you might want to consider playing slower time controls....like 1 move per 7 days. This will allow you to study openings while you play. In daily games you are allowed to consult books and databases. You just cant use an engine until the game is over. Personally I find that even 1 move per 3 days is way too fast for me. With 1 move per 7 days I play much better and since the games are of a higher quality they are more useful for analyzing and improving.
Hi everybody. I'm currently rated 1324 on daily chess with 287 games or something. I have a 51% win ratio, 48% loss ratio and a 2% draw ratio. I don't know if it matters, just mentioning it for context. I'm focusing my training program based on the recommended study plan for beginners from chess.com. My question is should I focus on tactics training and daily games for one full year before balancing it with the strategy, endgame, openings and bringing it all together sections or should I do, 1 month tactics, 1 month strategy, 1 month tactics, 1 month strategy and back and forth until I fully understand the strategy part of the study plan?
My idea behind the first plan is that as a beginner I hear and read on chess.com that tactics and playing are the best way to go about it as a beginner. The gold plan is all I need for this program because 25 tactics a day is more than enough for me, as they last me about an hour and 15 minutes to do all 25 because I try really hard to solve them if I don't see the solution right away. Pros of this plan, after a full year I should greatly improve my tactical vision. Cons, only focused on tactics and neglecting other parts.
My idea behind plan 2 is that it would be a more balanced approach. Tactics and strategy alternating months until I understand what they want me to learn and after that it would be tactics and endgame back and forth again, until I hit every training part. Pros: balanced training program with 50% focusing on tactics. Cons: Will require diamond membership for the videos mentioned on the program. Also maybe not the best for a beginner if I should focus on tactics and games at my beginner level.
Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Which plan should I go with?