Getting from 1700 to 1800 (standard live)

Up until my current rating the main method of getting better for me has been playing alot , I feel that to get to the 1800 level ill have to start doing other things. What do you recommend? Preferably from people who have crossed from 1700 to 1800 but I don't mind advice from other people . I feel like this is a pretty modest goal and i'm not asking how to become a GM in 2 weeks so if i could get serious advice / answers that'd be great , thanks . 

If you want to take a look at my archive i'll save you the time 

https://www.chess.com/games/archive?show=live_standard&username=krikorian12

"I feel that to get to the 1800 level ill have to start doing other things. What do you recommend?" I don't think you read this part of my post .

 Thanks for the compliment/advice . and I think the game you were giving advice on was this game 

I would say figuring out your weakest area is the best place to start. If your opening play needs work as fiveofswords suggests I would start there. The game is much easier if you can get an early advantage in the opening. I also have the modest goal of reaching 1800 this year and I think it's totally possible. My two weak spots are middle game planning, and I make careless blunders too often. I almost always throw away the first game I play it never fails lol. Have you ever studied openings or do you just wing it?

 I know the basic ones and i pick up alot of openings from opponents . You say the first game you play of a day is usually bad maybe you should try warming up before a game somehow? 

@krikorian12

Are you up to a 15|10 game right now?

 sure add me

I do warm up and I still suck first game lol. I think it's part psychological. I hadn't played one game of chess in 10 years before I joined here so I'm ok with where I'm at right now. Figured i'd be a lot worse. I would suggest you pick some solid openings that suit you and study those and play them as much as possible. I find being in familiar positions more often helps a lot. For example I play the Sicilian EVERY TIME I face 1.e4 and I study every Sicilian line I can find so I have at least some idea what the main themes are. I'm also a e4 player myself so when I face Sicilians I have a good idea of what to do. Familiar territory helps a lot IMO.

krikorian12 wrote:

erik42085 wrote:

I would say figuring out your weakest area is the best place to start. If your opening play needs work as fiveofswords suggests I would start there. The game is much easier if you can get an early advantage in the opening. I also have the modest goal of reaching 1800 this year and I think it's totally possible. My two weak spots are middle game planning, and I make careless blunders too often. I almost always throw away the first game I play it never fails lol. Have you ever studied openings or do you just wing it?

 I know the basic ones and i pick up alot of openings from opponents . You say the first game you play of a day is usually bad maybe you should try warming up before a game somehow? 

Thanks for the games, krikorian12.

 You're welcome

I spent 90 minutes writing a fun analysis of this game, but then chess.com deleted it.

Great game!

 Damn 90 minutes ?! Which game were you analyzing?

I reccomend doing lots and lots of tactics. Since you have a membership (*wink wink nudge nudge*), the chess.com tatics trainer is very good. Chesstempo is also very good, with two settings; blitz, and standard. Also, it's free. But chess.com's TT is better (*wink wink nudge nudge*).

Work on your tactics, you reach 1800 soon.

 I feel like your assessment is pretty correct , I just reviewed a game i played and i made things way too hard on myself for trying to force an attack to work , even though i thought it was pretty justified because my forces were all near his king . I could have just tried to trade off . I won the game on time

Get good tactical chess book " 1001 Winning Chess Sacrifices and Combinations by Fred Reinfeld. I demonstrate that you need work on tactics. You are not selecting the correctplan and these two books will help you " Logical Chess: Move by Move and The Most Instructive games of Chess Ever played, both books are by Irving Chernev. 

Krikorian vs. kk110  15/10     Instead of 10.Bxe4?! you should of played 10. Qe2 forcing black to play 10...Bxd3 11.Qxd3 and pawn structure is solid. Another mistake is 12.Qe3?, 12.Rh3 is the only correct move, the obvious threat is 12.Qe3 e3! and black queen threating the unprotect rook on h1, you should of saw this with the time limit 15/10: 12. Rh3! e3? 13. Qxe3 and you won a pawn, black lose a pawn anyway 12.Rh3! and now the pawn on e4 is attack twice by the Nd2 and and queen going to e2. You have to balance attack and defend moves and see the threats before they come.

 ok i just realized which game you were talking about . That wasnt too serious of a game and i was playing pretty careless as u can see from me pushing tons of pawns in my opening , then i let him get a huge attack . Pretty terrible play by me and not typical , and to be honest im not a big fan of the solving puzzles to get better tactics( and i dont think its too effective) because just playing has been fine for learning the patterns so far . Although thanks for the advice