Chess improvement

Hi all,

I started playing chess again last year after 14 years. I gave up when I was 12 (had a grading of 1500) and started playing again for a local club (now 27). The first year went quite well and I've managed to increase my grading by almost 200 points (currently 1690). 

During the break in the season been spending about 2 hours a day practicing (Mon-Fri) and more at weekends. At the moment my current training schedule consists of the following: 

• 30 mins of tactics
• 30 mins of Yusupov Build up your chess 1
• 30 mins of endgames
• 30 mins of opening

One thing I really like about the Yusupov books are that they show you where you are weak (or lacking knowledge). I have found the first book relatively easy except in the positional/strategy area.

I've been trying to come up with a plan to increase my knowledge in this area. It is not as straightforward as endgame and tactics. For example I use the tactics trainer and Silaman's endgame course to improve these and it's relatively straight forward. 

My thinking at the moment is before going on to the second Yusupov book is to try study two positional/strategy books (as well as keeping up my other training topics). I have already read How to Reasses Your Chess by Silman but I either havent taken in all the information of the Yusupov book is to a higher level. I have considered re-reading the HTRYC but can't decide whether I should try something else. At the moment I'm thinking of studying the follwoing:

• Michael Stean - Simple Chess/Herman Grooten - Chess Strategy for Club Players/ Lev Albert - Chess Strategy for the Tournament Player
• Nimzowitch - My System/ Aagard - Excelling at Positional Chess (maybe this is to high level?)

Some other options would be to study pawn structures or game collections.

I guess part of the problem is I have too much resources  but I am trying to study as efficienctly as possible. Can anybody provide advice/recommendations on how they improved their positional chess skills.

Thanks in advance!

for Post-Beginners one positional book you can have is chess training for Post-Beginners by yaroslav srokovski. The review of this book is given at silman's website. Even I have that book.

I am currently working through series 2 of the yusupov books. I would recommend going straight to boost your chess 1 since these books will probably lead to quicker improvement.

Passive learning books (simple chess etc) which aren't actually very difficult won't be very rewarding.

If you are finding build up chess 1 easy, boost 1 shouldn't be a problem since itd only slightly harder. 

Stick to the yusupov books.

A good book for pawn structures is this one: https://www.amazon.com/Chess-Structures-Mauricio-Flores-Rios/dp/1784830003

which from experience is an excellent book.

IMO there is not much point in re-reading unless it was a particularly challenging book.

What do you do when you say 30 min of endgames?

@Inflammableking: Maybe thats the best idea, I did fail two of the positional/strategy chapters (noted them down at home). So maybe I will go back and re-do them and If I still fail I will study a book on the basic principles of positional chess as I am obviously lacking some fundamental knowledge.

For endgames I am working my way through Silman's Complete Endgame course. Studying endgames is such a rewarding/easy part of chess (unlike positional chess which requires a lot more effort).

Make sure you are spending at least 5min on each problem in the test.

My system is a good choice if you delay the yusupov and even if you don't!

I am trying to reach 1900 and my coach told me that I should start to learn pawn structures. 

The book that I can reccomend you is the one mentioned before written by Marcelo Rios - Pawn Structures. I bought it recently and have a lot of fun with it. Also pawn structures are very well explained in Modern chess magazine, which is one of the best in the market in my opinion. I failed to find a good book for endgames. I tried Dvorecky's manual, but it is too hard for me. I read 100 Endgames that you must know by Jesus de la Villa and it is quite nice, but I feel that I need more. I will appreciate any suggestions. 

Van perlo endgame tactics

Yes agreed, sometimes I rush and don't take the full time. This is definetly good advice. So I think as I said previously to re-do the chapters I struggled on and if my performance is still unsatisfactory I will study My System.

I am doing tactics as well as the Yusupov books. Why would I ignore something (positional chess) that I am obviously weak at?

Yes pawn structures are something I've been interested in learning about for quite some time. I had only heard about the books by Soltis and Kmoch. Having read some reviews on the one you recomended it looks excellent. 

For endgames I would suggest the Silman book I mentioned above (Silman's Complete Endgame Course). Each chapter is aimed at different class players and it covers a lot of material. From studying this I have noticed that my endgame technique is as good as players a couple of hundred points above me.