Best order to study these topics?

I am looking to seriously improve my game, but I'm not sure where to start. Which order should I study these topics in? Or should I be studying several of them at the same time?

Tactics

Defence

Attacking

Positional

Planning

Strategy

Combinations

Sacrifices

Pawn structure

The centre

Endgame

Thanks for your help!

Hi. I was thinking more of what general order would these be studied in, but you're right in asking for more info.

1. Approximately 2 years, but only recently willing to spend the time on it

2. I'm unrated and don't play OTB often. I consistently beat Shredder at the 1225 mark. I can spot the odd fork, but i still blunder and have trouble determining my own plan and what my opponent's plan may be.

3. I can't say i'm really comfortable about any areas. I just know a little bit about everything, but my actual understanding of concepts is probably quite low.

Thanks very much!

as everyone has said, make tactics your main focus. however i disagree that you should ONLY study tactics. it's good to have a little positional knowledge and a little endgame knowledge whatever level you're at.

for instance i find / found that a lot of the time i was making blunders in games it was when i had no plan for moving forward and was essentially moving pieces because it was my turn and i had to move something. having a bit of strategic knowledge will help you make a plan in a situation. simple things like "oh all of his pawns are on light squares, if i can trade off his dark squared bishop i will have the better minor piece!" can give you something to aim for in the next 4 or 5 moves or whatever, and quite often in this time your opponent may blunder himself.   

Completely agree with Immryr (and Rensch who says the same thing).

It's easy to write off errors as simple tactical blunders, but most blunders occur from a bad position and it's too easy to say 'I just overlooked that threat'. Yes, but why?

Tactical trainer and puzzles are much more geared to spotting how you can benefit from a mistake too, rather than your opponents threats, which is more of a thought process.

yeah, that is a slightly different, although linked, point and i fully agree with it. when you have a better position tactics magically appear, so conversely, if you have a bad position they appear for your opponent.

Having said that, I'm probably mixing up my short games (where I outright hang pieces every game) and long ones where I don't often fail to multi move tactics any more.

When I get drawn with someone ~1500 online you can tell most of them would benefit most from having the simple tactics down.

I appreciate the responses, everyone. Thanks again.

I would say, start studying each. And figure out which one comes easiest to ya.

Then, you know where your strengths are, and what kind of player you'll be.

In the past my training program used to be very detailed. However then I decided to simplify it and now it contains just 4 points:
 - tactics
 - endgame
 - practical play (OTB + internet)
 - all the rest (master games, attack, defense, strategy, pawn play etc.)

I give these 4 activities roughly equal priority and time share.

May be this can suit you too.

Endgame should come first.  If you don't understand what to do with 3 to 10 pieces on the board, trying to figure out what to do with 32 pieces on the board will be overwhelming.  The basics of K+P vs K should be first.  When does it win for the player with the pawn?  When does it draw for the player without.  Then your other basic endgames should come next.  Minor Piece Endings (NvN, BvB same color, BvB opposite color, BvN), Rook Endings (CRUCIAL! - Make sure you know Philidor's Draw, the Short Side Defense, the Long Side Defense, and Lucena's position like the back of your hand), Queen Endings (Understanding that Quality of Pawns, like how far advanced they are, is more critical than Quantity of Pawns in Queen and Pawn endings), etc.

A lot of people on this thread are arguing tactics first.  Here's the catch, if you can't calculate, you can't master tactics.  Calculating with a White King, White Pawn, and Black King is a lot simpler than calculating with 32 pieces scattered about!

After Endings, Tactics should be studied before Strategy/Positional Play.  Tactics are short, concrete calculations.  Strategy/Positonal Play is more understanding of long term assets.  A backwards pawn may never be able to be fixed, but a space advantage can be eliminated if the side short in space can eliminate all the central pawns, stuff like that.  A lot more complicated than trying to calculate 2 and 3 move combinations that lead to either a material gain, or some type of fatal pin that will gain material shortly, etc.

Therefore, the following is the order I'd recommend (Assuming one knows all the rules first, like en passant, not being allowed to castle out of, over, or into check, but the Rook can be attacked when castling, etc)

1. Endgames

2. Tactics

3. Strategy/Positional Play

4. Play tournament games Over the Board (Online Blitz won't suffice by itself)

5. Everything Else excluding Openings until you're 1800

6. Openings

if the only thing you study is endings, the chances of you reaching one are pretty slim.

I disagree completely. Such rigid approach - "1st do only this, 2nd do only that etc." - is a sure way to demotivation and burnout. Chess must remain fun and learning various things (with emphasis on tactics and endgames) is a much better way to go.

I don't know any serious instruction book that advocates your approach.

Tactics is not only about calculation, it's primarily about seeing common themes (pattern recognition) and here it doesn't matter how many pieces are on the board.

Allow me to make some inline edits to your list. The categorization should help you with creating a plan. For starters, I congratulate you for not including "openings" in your list. Beyond that, your question is really three separate sub-questions. The easiest is endgames. I don't know your level, but if you're a beginner or intermediate, you could probably learn a lot from a book like "Chess Endings: Essential Knowledge" by Averbakh. For tactics, it's all about learning patterns. I would take IM Pruess's advice and use Tactics Trainer about 10 times per day, for a maximum of two minutes per problem. If you don't know the pattern - this is a good thing - then you look at the solution after two minutes, and this is a great opportunity to learn. I think I read somewhere that you need 10,000 patterns. You likely do not have that many, and any time you can increase your store of patterns, this is a good thing. In other words, the more wrong you get, the better off you are. The goal is adding to your pattern store, not getting a higher rating. The only relevant thing with your rating is the collection of problems they give you (which they give based on your rating).

Maybe someone else can post something about Positional Chess. My advice is to find a youtube video, or buy a book on it. There are a bunch.

Notice I didn't put Tournament Games 2nd!  I put that 4th!  I never said the ONLY thing you study is Endings.  I said the FIRST thing you study is ending.

As for Uri65, he will never succeed with that attitude.  This isn't 21st century highschool, where students need to have fun time and motivation just to do their work, and hence why a much higher percentage of today's kids won't succeed compared to 30 years ago.  This is chess.  You need to have a passion to succeed.  You need to be willing to put in the work.  Whether it's dry, like endings, or exciting, like queen sacrifices, you must know it all, or else you'll just end up being another of those nobodies that can't get past 1500.

and what if being a tournament player is not his goal? what if he want's to improve his game for playing against a bunch of friends, or just online play?

are you saying the only playing he should do is tournament games? if so, you listed playing tournament games as fourth on your list. so you want him to master endings, tactics and then positional play before even playing another game of chess? seems a little silly to me.

ThrillerFan, the endgame program you've described will take like 12 months for beginner. Do you seriously suggest that he does nothing else during this time?

I have seen Soviet training programs from beginner to expert level. I had a look at highly successful Dutch "Step by step" method. None of them is similar to what you suggest. They all start from basic tactics, basic mates. Only then come basic endgames, some openings, some notions of strategy. And so on - it's all mixed and well rounded. And there are thousands of strong players trained according to them. What are your credits? How many successful stories behind your method?

For anybody below IM level chess is a hobby, not a job. So what's wrong with having fun? Then it's everyone's own decision how much to invest. One can work hard and still have fun. But your proposed way of doing things seems to me too pedantic and boring.

What he said ^^

It's really quite simple. Look at your last 20 losses. Where did you lose?

If you lost all of them in the opening, it's not rocket science to figure out what to study. Improve your weakest area, till something else becomes your wekest area.

I agree with ThrillerFan. Focus on endings to really understand your pieces and keep on playing. When a game is over spend some time analyzing it. When you are done with your analysis use your chess engine but limit its strength to be able to understand its moves and lines. It is interesting to see how a 3000+ rated engine would have played but when I get such an analysis (it is sometimes so even with the 2500 Chess.com one) I often don`t understand its strategy and can`t see why the position after its moves is supposed to be better than mine.  I may be the only one here who thinks you should study openings even now. Just pick two or three you like and study them. This will help you with understanding chess and you will not lose only because you made some stupid moves in the opening stage. If you become a premium member here you will be able to use their Explorer fully. Or you can use a free online opening database.

I agree with Boletus about the analysis thing; realistically even the basic 2200 engine is over your head (and mine). I recently finished a game in which I checkmated my opponent in 27 moves. I made a plan and executed it and got the mate: the engine said 5 of my last 7 moves were mistakes.

Several people have mentioned Tactics Trainer and puzzles, don't forget the Chess Mentor application. I actually get more out of it than the Tactics Trainer.

I don't know what you should study either. But I recommend opening theory last. GM Maurice Ashley said studying middle and endgame is the fastest road to improvement. Just an USCF expert's 2 cents.