1700's Rating Plateau... How did you pass it?

Sup fellow Chess homies. Been playing Chess since high school and steadily progressed till I hit this crappy 1700's invisible wall. My Chess.com ratings here is almost in sinc with my USCF (1780). Except my game here seems to fluctuate a little more in the high 1600 - mid 1700s range. Been in this limbo a long time now. 

Anyone here had this experience? Your method of conquering "the wall"?

I think everyone hits a few plateaus now and then. My first was 1300. Then 1600. Then breaking past 2000 took a while. Now reaching 2200 feels like a challenge.

But, like every plateau, there's usually a reason that you're stuck—something in your game that's lacking, or needs correcting.

Do you review every game you play, to find your mistakes? If not, do it. You can use Stockfish here on chess.com to help you review.

Are there any openings you feel uncomfortable facing? If so, don't hide from them—study them and work on them until they don't scare you anymore.

Do you run into moves where you don't know what to do, and are searching for a plan? Sometimes this could mean you're missing tactics—but a lot of the time it means you lack positional knowledge. Have you read any positional books, like Nimzo's "My System", or Silman's "Reassess your Chess"? I recommend doing so, if you haven't.

Aside from that, it might be time to start honing an opening repertoire, if you haven't already. Practicing important endgame positions certainly can't hurt, either.

Keep at it! You'll break the wall if you keep pushing forward. One step at a time. Best of luck!

In my experience, the 1700s is about consistently not making simple tactic blunders in your games.

Obviously it's all individual, but realize that as you get better, it will get harder and harder to keep improving. 

Try to understand your games, especially your losses. You must understand every mistake in your games.

What types of positions or openings are you uncomfortable in? What have you not studied yet (strategy, tactics, endgame, etc.)?

I'm betting you have some stop gaps. Maybe you don't like dealing with attacks, or closed positions. Dealing with endgames, certain openings. You're uncomfortable with sacrificing, or any number of others things. Everyone (especially at that level) has something. So we do things like always attack, or always open or close the position, or adopt a really rare opening hoping to surprise our opponent.

Instead of this, which is running away, properly face you weak areas by learning about them. Turn it into a strength.

Also play over many GM games at a fast pace. 5 to 10 minutes a game, 5 to 10 games a day. Every day. You're not trying to memorize or understand them completely, you want exposure to a lot of ideas. They will definitely contain moves and ideas you'd have thought were bad or impossible. Use those moments to identify your weak areas too.

Anyway, I also liked BlunderLots' advice.

That's how you currently beat 1700s, not how 1700s improve.

I watched Naka blundering in blitz recently. Tactical blunders happen whenever a person is pushed to their limits by a difficult position. You can't push your opponents this far without knowing at least a little bit about every area of the game.

You guys are awesome! Good advice here. Never read "My System" or "Reassess your Chess" yet, though they've been on my to do list as they seem highly recommended. I thought by just playing a ton of games and learning to adapt I could just make it on my own. But alas, it seems extra help is still needed... No shame in that though. Thanks alot y'all.

I recommend "Soviet middlegame technique" (Quality chess)

Mine happened around 1800. Try endgames, even what seems basic to you, to make sure you know how to convert your winning positions into won games. And as already said, tactics. Having a good tactical eye and good fundamental knowledge can take you to 1800+ generally

I wouldn't recommend "Reassess your Chess" though, not all of it. It's quite advanced for 1700 - you'll learn a lot from several chapters, especially Chapter 4, but a lot of it is quite difficult to understand, and I still need to finish that book up.

Some difficult books I would recommend are "Imagination in Chess" and "Forcing Chess Moves". These books are advanced tactics books, but unlike most tactics books, they teach you thought process. They also highlight the elegance of chess, and will make you more creative. 

I found these books much more useful, practically, than Reassess your Chess.

This is a tough one. I'd say the 1700s is where you start to meet decent players who don't often hang pieces and pawns, and who start to use more sophisticated strategies such as prophylaxis. I normally play around 1850-1900, but if I have a bad day and get frustrated then I dread falling into the 1700s because it is by no means easy to get out again. 

For me, the answer was to read My System thoroughly. It helped me with the positional side of the game and to apply strategy more consistently. The difference between each level, as far as I can tell, seems to be about positional understanding. 1700s have a surprising amount of it, but 1800s are much more consistent and less likely to rely on "hope chess", and 1900s still more so and so on. I have never crossed 2000 here, so cannot tell what makes a 2000+ player. But, anyway, 1700 here seems to be a watershed. Once past it, there are no easy games and no easy opponents.