stucked at 1350


Dear UmarBadeko,
I am a certified, full-time chess coach and International Master, so I have seen it and tried it all.
There are so many ways to get better and I know it can be overwhelming.
You can learn from free videos on youtube, there are books at your disposal that can all help, but they are not tailored to your needs.
One of the most important things you can do is to analyze your games! You must learn from your mistakes! That is a priority. You can't really move on to a new, different topic and learn new ideas if you still make the same mistakes over and over again!
This is where a chess coach comes into the picture. A good coach can show you how to study, what to study, gives you the material YOU need. Naturally, it takes time to use everything in practice, but if you are relentless and persistent you will succeed!
You should learn the main principles in every area of the game (opening, middlegame, endgame). Don't focus on only one part! You should improve your tactical vision as well as it is part of all areas!
This how I built my training program for my students. We discuss more than one topic during a lesson so it's always interesting and they can improve constantly. I give homework too and the right tools to make practicing enjoyable and effective!
Don't worry about your rating and the ups and downs! Just keep on playing and practicing!
I hope this helps. I wish you good games and 100+ extra ratings

falling below your peak rating is completely normal, else it wouldnt be a peak. just focus on playing the best you can and the rating will come later

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

I was in the same boat as you earlier this month. I would reach 1400 and then I would fall back into the 1300s even as low as 1200s at one point. I hate to sound like those twitch streamers but I actually did puzzles to improve. But not the puzzles on chess.com but the puzzles in "The Woodpecker Method" by Axel Smith and Hans Tikkanen. There is a Chessables course for it which is about $40 if you want to buy it but if you are like me who didn't pay for it, then I can help you get started.
In a nut shell, the point of the book is solve as many problems as you can in 4 weeks while timing yourself and take a break from chess for about a day to a week. Then you do another cycle where you solve the same puzzles in 2 weeks and take a break. They have more details but the point is to be able to solve them faster and improve your calculation.
I write my first move on my paper with five answers in one line then skip a line. I only do this AFTER once I finished calculating through the line. I check in the back of the book for the answers and do all the problems that are mentioned on that page in the answers (just briefly look for problem numbers BUT do not look at answers). I grade my answers and give myself points with check marks on top of the answer based on the book's judgment.
After I feel I did enough puzzles and/or did them for a certain amount of time, I put in my data to the excel sheet mentioned in the book where I put in my time and puzzles done with my score (optional) and put in my mistakes with cycle number, puzzle number, and reason for not getting it.
If you have any questions then feel free to DM me. I hope this helps

I was in the same boat as you earlier this month. I would reach 1400 and then I would fall back into the 1300s even as low as 1200s at one point. I hate to sound like those twitch streamers but I actually did puzzles to improve. But not the puzzles on chess.com but the puzzles in "The Woodpecker Method" by Axel Smith and Hans Tikkanen. There is a Chessables course for it which is about $40 if you want to buy it but if you are like me who didn't pay for it, then I can help you get started.
In a nut shell, the point of the book is solve as many problems as you can in 4 weeks while timing yourself and take a break from chess for about a day to a week. Then you do another cycle where you solve the same puzzles in 2 weeks and take a break. They have more details but the point is to be able to solve them faster and improve your calculation.
I write my first move on my paper with five answers in one line then skip a line. I only do this AFTER once I finished calculating through the line. I check in the back of the book for the answers and do all the problems that are mentioned on that page in the answers (just briefly look for problem numbers BUT do not look at answers). I grade my answers and give myself points with check marks on top of the answer based on the book's judgment.
After I feel I did enough puzzles and/or did them for a certain amount of time, I put in my data to the excel sheet mentioned in the book where I put in my time and puzzles done with my score (optional) and put in my mistakes with cycle number, puzzle number, and reason for not getting it.
If you have any questions then feel free to DM me. I hope this helps
Thank you for advice I will forward to getting the book and see how it goes.

How many puzzles do you end up doing because i feel like i would just remember all of them lol Not sure i see the point in doing this but maybe im wrong
As of starting on the 21st, I am on problem 283. But everyone is different and it also depends on how far you are going to go with easy ending at 222, intermediate ending at 984, and advanced ending at 1128. The book highly recommends that for the amateur player that isn't in the 2000+ level not to do the advanced exercises as they are too hard and you won't get anything out of it if you aren't able to understand why it is the best continuation.
The book says "A reasonable number for a working amateur might be 250." They recommend about 5-10 hours a week to keep it flexible yet keeps you accountable. But for comparison to me, I did about 13 hours of training, and I completed about 279 puzzles. Keep in mind that as you get to the next level, you aren't going to breeze by all the puzzles the way you did previously as you need to spend more time calculating and blunder-checking.
Also, when you do a puzzle again after a period of time, you start to get the reinforce the idea so when you come to a similar position, you are able to calculate the right move faster and recognize the position. You can just do online puzzle trainers but they don't do as well as a book as per this video here. I hope this answers your question

hm maybe better than these puzzles on here though lol
In the video, it explained how the puzzles are engine based so they will do the move that a computer will make in a position rather than a human. Also, a book will make you calculate the critical lines while the puzzles online guess the "correct" next move but it disregards the rest of the moves you need to calculate because "there are many winning moves" but if you don't calculate them then you didn't solve the puzzle.

hm maybe better than these puzzles on here though lol
In the video, it explained how the puzzles are engine based so they will do the move that a computer will make in a position rather than a human. Also, a book will make you calculate the critical lines while the puzzles online guess the "correct" next move but it disregards the rest of the moves you need to calculate because "there are many winning moves" but if you don't calculate them then you didn't solve the puzzle.
I've started doing puzzles from books (chessable to be honest) for this exact reason. I find too many of the puzzles on chess.com feel rather obtuse, to use a fancy word. They simply don't feel right.