Help with creating a concrete plan

Hi! I'm reading Silman's "The Amateur's Mind". I'm having problems coming up with a plan. Like, I look at the imbalances... I see most of them. Now what? I find myself losing game after game against chessmaster when the opponents are 1200 or better. Basically, if they make a mistake, I can win. If they don't... well... it's not so easy. I find that i play pretty well by move 14 or so, and then something happens which causes so many bad problems that I simply lose. Help?

Also, I was wondering if there was a sequence of things you could ask yourself after each and every move. Something to that made sense with coming up with plans, looking for tactics, etc. Like Chess Logic, to help sement a good sequence of thought while you play so you don't miss anything. Anyone came up with this?

Thanks!

Hi Ray,

I recommend "The Soviet School of Chess" by Kotov... this book clearly sets out the thought processes required before each move.

Here are some links that might help:

http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman05.pdf

http://www.chesscafe.com/archives/archives.htm 

You may also want to read over Dan Heisman's other "Novice Nook" columns at chesscafe.com. Reading over collections of annotated games played by masters would also be a good idea: you get to see how the really good players formulate a plan. Also you might want to take a look at this book:

http://www.chess.com/eq/chess+books/winning-chess-strategies2 

Hope that helps. 

Thanks! I will check that out.

One of the things I don't like about The Amateur's Mind is that Silman seems to repeat himself A LOT. But the problems he's talking about don't seem to be affecting me... at least the ones he stresses. I just find that I'm playing subpar moves or can't see creative ways out of problems more than anything else.

One of the things he mentions like a gazillion times is that amatuers always seem to go for a mating attack, or want to attack on the kingside. This is stuff I never do. I also have better judgement of threats than many of these much higher rated opponents from the book. I actually wonder how many of Silman's students rated 1700-2000 make subpar moves... many of which even I was baffled at.

Still, I'm a weak player. Very weak. I Know there's a few things stopping me from becoming much better. Knowing what move to play to implement a plan (or how to come up with it) is challenging for me. I also have a hard time seeing creative moves.