Road to 1600 Rapid, trying to improve after every game.

@Giasira, first of all full credit for analyzing your games yourself instead of asking others to do it like many posters do.

I think you should take more time for analysis and go a little deeper. Once this is done  blunder check with an engine.

Especially in your game 8 there are some holes see my added comments. Also try to find your opponent's best moves during analysis.

@ghost_of_pushwood

"Over and over again players post games here, generally accompanied by a lot of airy philosophizing about positional subtleties and so forth.

Then, when I actually go through the game, I find it almost always boils down to this: everything was going along okay...until somebody hung something big."

I agree. I took no offense to this. It is an honest assessment. I would add a bit more complexity though. I also notice that often the hanging something big is preceded by a complex situation or the opponent achieving some advantage. There is often some distraction going on that leads to making a big mistake. That is why I am much more likely to hang a piece in a competitive game than against a weaker opponent. 

For an average chess hobbyist, like me, chess improvement isn't about learning how to make moves a master makes, it is about learning how to stop making the obvious blunders that masters avoid. 

@ghost_of_pushwood " do have to say though that it's also thoroughly possible to hang stuff against a weaker opponent (because you can tend to let your guard down)."

Agreed, I can hang a piece in any game at any time.  lol

However, it is more likely to happen against an equal or better player when I am worried about 3 different things at once. I'm not counting knowingly letting a kid win pieces because they are a kid and it makes them happy.  

I found for me that above 1500 is when I had to start making wins. I couldn't just play with my thumbs and move pieces aimlessly, hoping for a blunder. I had to create threats.

@zeitnoakrobat Thank you for your comments to this game. It was eye-opening to see those variations you added. Using tempi to gain control of squares and put pressure on  weakly defended pieces is definitely something I should take more into account when looking at candidate moves. As it is, I`m too focused on short-term plans, or I`m seeing threats which aren`t so dangerous after all, and wasting time defending against them. (In game 8 I didn`t want both the queen and the bishop coming into my position so I didn`t see that I could trap the queen. if he tried that. I also correctly saw that my knight was about to get into trouble, but moved it too early)  I seemed to have understood the concept of tempi in game 1, but lost my mojo along the way. I think I will take you advice to do a deeper analysis. I have limited time to commit to chess, so I`ll simply play fewer games and spend more time analyzing. 

@Subtleties I will go through this game a few times. I`m more of a french player against 1.e4 traditionally, but I should realistically get a grip on e4. e5 before I think about anything else. If I play Nf6 before getting the bishop out I`ll have to learn what to do against the fried liver attack too. 

Sensible goal. Usually, you see here posts like «l want to be a GM in one year»

Ahaha I have no illusions of ever getting any kind of chess title. I started getting into chess last autumn at 26 years of age. I`m just a hobby player really enjoying chess.  I have other projects and a full-time job too so if I can even make it to 1700 chess.com rapid rating I would consider it a huge achievement.  Probably not going to mess around with OTB unless I find a good chess club.

@girsira
You have a great plan. Playing slower is better and getting a lot of feedback. 

To speed your improvement, consider playing one fewer games per day and adding 15 minutes of tactics training and one endgame lesson or drill. Over time, the tactical and endgame enhancements will have an impact. I like Puzzle Rush, but whatever you happen to like is best.  Good luck!

I`d claim that playing chess is more nuts.
My arguments: Running is an essential and natural human activity that has been practiced for hundreds of thousands of years, if our forefathers were playing chess instead of running we wouldn`t exist. 

Running is good for your health, both physical and mental. There is a large body of research supporting this. Chess is good for getting better at chess, and that`S pretty much it. It`s damn fun and addictive though. 

I agree that physical activity is essential for good performance in mental activities. Magnus Carlsen for example likes to spend his days off  during tournament schedules to play football or other sports, instead of spending that time studying chess. I`ve done martial arts myself and they are definitely a very good way to reset the mind.