What else should I be doing to improve?

Hi, I've played on and off over the years but now I made a chess.com account and I'm taking it a bit more seriously, I would really like to improve.

So far I've made a repertoire, I try to do many puzzles and mainly stick to rapid games.

For my openings I've chosen the London (at first I played the stonewall but I dropped it) it works really good for me >60% win rate and I play it in a challenging way (c4 when I can, exchanging bishops when black plays KID, etc), the classical dutch and the caro-kann because I like to make people go into my territory so I'm the one comfortable in the position, I don't know if I should've picked the Dutch but I saw it on the lessons by ginger gm and I really liked how he explained it. As for the caro-kann I'm still learning it but I really like (so much easier than the French which I obviously dropped when I realized that it was really above my level). I have really bad losing rate with black because I didn't have any openings for real until a few weeks ago. Tell me if you think I should change something about my repertoire.

For puzzles I try to do 15 each day and I have a 60% of correct answers, but I've a rating of almost 1300 and I think I'm slightly getting stuck there. I think my rating might be a little low given that I'm almost 1200 on rapid.

For middlegame plans I try to know the ideas of my openings and I'm watching videos of Hanging Pawns on youtube to improve. For endgames is the same.

I try to play only a few of rapid games each day and analyze them almost always, usually around 5 minutes of analysis. If I have time I play blitz but just for fun.

I also watch youtube videos of eric rosen, gotham, etc but I know they don't do much for improvement it's just cheap entertainment.

So what do you think I should focus more on? Should I change something? Am I doing fine like this?

Edit: Just after this post I went from 1280 to 1480 in puzzle rating

I think the openings are good, and sounds like you're doing a lot. Rapid games, analysis, puzzles, videos...

I think you can improve a lot that way. If I were going to mention something it'd be books like Pachman's Modern Chess Strategy. Videos are good, and some are by GMs, but I've never seen a video that systematically walks through all the basics of something the way a book would... I'm not saying to buy that book right now, it's probably too much at the moment, but just something to keep in mind for the future.

Thanks for the recommendation, I've looked some info and I think I might read it eventually if I keep spending time on chess like I'm doing right now.

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

Dear ArielAlva,

I am a certified, full-time chess coach, so I hope I can help you. Everybody is different, so that's why there isn't only one general way learn. First of all, you have to discover your biggest weaknesses in the game and start working on them. The most effective way for that is analysing your own games. Of course, if you are a beginner, you can't do it efficiently because you don't know too much about the game yet. There is a built-in engine on chess.com which can show you if a move is good or bad but the only problem that it can't explain you the plans, ideas behind the moves, so you won't know why is it so good or bad.

You can learn from books or Youtube channels as well, and maybe you can find a lot of useful information there but these sources are mostly general things and not personalized at all. That's why you need a good coach sooner or later if you really want to be better at chess. A good coach can help you with identifying your biggest weaknesses and explain everything, so you can leave your mistakes behind you. Of course, you won't apply everything immediately, this is a learning process (like learning languages), but if you are persistent and enthusiastic, you will achieve your goals.

In my opinion, chess has 4 main territories (openings, strategies, tactics/combinations and endgames). If you want to improve efficiently, you should improve all of these skills almost at the same time. That's what my training program is based on. My students really like it because the lessons are not boring (because we talk about more than one areas within one lesson) and they feel the improvement on the longer run. Of course, there are always ups and downs but this is completely normal in everyone's career.

I recommend you to solve around 4-5 puzzles before playing games. It's not the best if you solve too many puzzles (e.g. 20-30 pcs) because you'll be too tired for the game.

On the other hand, solving too many puzzles in a row can be dangerous because you can lose your patience quickly and you won't think on the right way. The quality is more important than the quantity! It's much more useful for you to solve only 10 puzzles per day with at least 80% accuracy than solving 50 puzzles per day with 60% accuracy.

You have to think ahead without moving the pieces and make your move when you see the solution from the start till the end. This is very important! That's how you can improve your visualisation and calculation skills on the most effective way!

And that's why I would never recommend you to play too many Puzzle Rush or Puzzle Battle games because they are time-limited, so you have to make fast and superficial decisions. And this is very harmful if you really want to improve at chess.

Of course, you can try this '4-5 puzzles before the game' method and if you feel that you are able to solve more without being too exhausted for the game, you can increase the number of the puzzles. But again...quality over quantity!!

I hope this is helpful for you. Good luck for your chess games!

Slow down in your games. Go from 10-0 to 15-10 and use most of that time. Any game that isn't an easy win should be burning up your clock as you look at the checks and captures on the board, as well as any additional attacks, and try to find stronger moves.