oh I guess I should point out I did decide to become a paying member of this site and have been doing a lot of the tactics trainers which seems to help. I have tried chesstempo but the I really like the layout of chess.com. I also been using chessmaster GE! which seems to be a good learning tool.
At what point did you know you were improving your game!
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Sep 26, 2014
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#4
It's a good question. I'd like to hear from those who broke through their first barrier of, let's say, 1400-1500 into that next level.
Sep 26, 2014
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#5
There are a couple of different places where improvement can show itself. I always thought I was a pretty good player but my performances OTB, especially in tournements, weren't very good. I had an old provisional rating from high school (2 games) when I started playing rated chess again in 2008.
I didn't do a ton of study the first year or so but began buying books and a year later joined the site here, getting a premium membership towards the end of that year when I saw all the features I could use.
However, I kept getting poor results in most of my games. I eventually realized I was moving too quickly and not really calculating very well or correctly. So I started taking more time and had a great tourney towards the end of 2011, and was able to keep up that performance.
From a rating standpoint, I've been pretty flat over the past year and a half. I'm finding myself again getting to positions were I move too quickly and not calculating very well, and have lost some games (and drew some) where I had decent advantages because of that.
I still have a lot of work and I hope I'm on the cusp of another jump 
Sep 26, 2014
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#6
A big moment in your chess development occurs before you can win much, but when you are understanding how and why your opponents are outplaying you. One usually improves rapidly from there.
I am just curious if there was a defining moment where you knew your game started to drastictly improve? Over the last month or so i have been analysing my playing and it finally seems to be paying off. It almost feels like im playing a whole diffrent game than before. I am starting to see forks, pins, skewers a lot easier!