Welp..

Try to watch some YouTube tutorials on how to improve ig

Yeah.. tried watching Gotham.. he's good in some vids horrible in others.. Hikaru I can't even follow.. goes too fast. Any suggestions? I tried ChessBrah but feel his methods really didn't help mid game...

To most of my students, I give this advice (and it's all they need):

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 these two simple steps:

1. After your opponent moves, think if it's dangerous. Ask yourself, “What’s his idea?”
2. Before you make your move, think if it's safe. Ask yourself, “What attacking replies can he play?”

If you feel like getting to levels like 1600, 1800, or 2000 in chess is super hard, let's look at it in a different way. Those players you're facing make blunders in nearly every game they play. Beating them isn't so tough if you stop making big mistakes and start using their slip-ups to your advantage.

Again, it does not require you to become a chess nerd or spend all your time on chess. Just doing this one thing can boost your rating by a few hundred points right away.

@1

"I either mess it up, or capitalize on someone else messing it up." ++ That is chess.

"I'm incapable of forcing mistakes tho." ++ Nobody can, not even Magnus Carlsen.

"how to force the other player to make a mistake" ++ You cannot, just avoid mistakes yourself.

"get me through a game if the other player is good"
++ If the other player is better, then you will make the last mistake.

"500 blitz player" ++ Play no blitz if you want to progress.

"won't really progress much past that"
++ Always check your intended move is no blunder before you play it.

You cannot force someone to make a mistake. If you think you can, they have already made the mistake and you are capitalizing on it.

People force me to move pieces I don't want to all the time, causing inaccuracies and mistakes.

If they make a move, that 'forces' you to move something to a bad square, your mistake was before their move. No one can cause an inaccuracy of calculation in your brain.

Well thank you all..

"Welp.."? How can you confuse the "W" and "H"?

Just as easily as I confused the fact that people would give actually helpful advice.

try puzzles and lessons, i used to be in the same situation

and you cant really force someone to make a bad move, But

you can make them feel pressured so they might end up making a mistake

One of the funny things I've learned over the decades is that when you don't really threaten anything at all, your opponent is likely to dream up a pointless or counterproductive move that leads immediately to disaster. I don't know how anyone can defend themselves from the enemy within.

I get what you are saying DrSpudnik... My initial request of being able to force a mistake is wrong. I just have a hard time when it comes to middle game tactics. Once I get through the opening, I realize that my pieces are set up, "just okay" but there's no clear plan of attack. Then my middle game is playing through the motions while my opponent trades down and trades down and trades down... I feel in most of my games I'm helpless to stop it and I end up with no knights, or bishops and in this kind of generic rook/queen/pawn end game. I watch other peoples games and see them getting creative with their knights and bishops forcing checkmates, and forking pieces but my bad board vision doesn't see the right move most of the time. I play very reactively.

No need for sarcasm. I don't want to report you.

Good then you don't need to. I didn't do anything worth reporting.

Sarcasm is not a violation of TOS. There would be no one left if it were.

I find it difficult to cause your opponent to make a mistake or inaccuracy in a positional game, where pawns aren't being traded or you only traded 2 pawns. However, in a tactical game where the board is open, you could cause some mistakes or blunders but only if you have the upper tactical edge and control the board more effectively than your opponent (however, if they start playing defensively then it could be a problem depending on how good their defensive play is). My general plan is to play solid and go for a way that slowly increases your advantage, but I usually forsake this for a tactical play if I deem I will be better if I go for tactics. The first is to slowly push your opponent on the back foot where they have to play passively as you keep bringing more active pieces on their side and the second is to bring your pieces, targetting a side of the board where you may have a large confrontation at.

@TheGuy. Thanks, I'll try to incorporate that into future games for sure. I miss A LOT of super simple tactics.. for example I reviewed my last game and I missed a skewer on my opponents queen to their king. Something I wish I had the vision to see.