Continuing improvement.

Hello all,

Last year I made the move from playing casual chess to playing in tournaments and unfortunately discovered how weak I actually was. I reached a rating of 908 USCF before beginning to improve. After 9 months I had reached 1049 and not being satisfied with that rate of improvement, decided to do something about it. So after three months of chess study/playing I'm at 1456. In that time I have read Pandolfini's Ultimate Guide to Chess, Bobby Fisher Teaches Chess, Chernev's Logical Chess: Move by Move, and am working my way through Silman's The Amateur's Mind and Farnsworth's Predator at the Chessboard. I am also playing many games including weekly tournaments. I am curious what a realistic year long goal is (I was thinking 17 or 1800 by a years time but don't know how realistic this is). As well as any specific things I should do to continue improving as much as possible (books or other resources). I spend between 20 and 40 hours a week with chess. I love the game of chess, and would very much like to become better. Thank you in advance for your posts.

I would highly recommend:

The Mammoth Book of The World's Greatest Chess Games.[Burgess, Nunn, Emms]

Chessslut15, I would recommend Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess to start with, it covers mating patterns; however I felt as though It improved my tactics significantly. It also has the benefit of being easy to get through.