How do you improve your chess?

I am 16 years old, have been playing chess with a detailed knowledge of the tactics and positional play for maybe 3 years now, but I've always remained a 1,200 rated player.

This has probably been posted numerous times before, but I couldn't find anything which suited my needs.

I have a good memory and have memorised all of the openings and their variations move by move, have studied all of the positional details, have read the books of Aron Nimzowitsch, but, I nonetheless find myself unable to increase my rating.

I can see perhaps up to 5 moves ahead  but my oponent will always be ahead of me and will I'll end up making a silly mistake and having to resign.

I know this is a probably many, if not all of us, suffer from. So what are your remedies?

QuantumMechanicc,

OK, I will take your post at face value, assuming that what you say you believe to be true - though I actually doubt parts of it are accurate.

I have examined (very quickly) three of your last Live Chess games (128691909, 128689669, and 128583612). In each of these you made rather obvious tactical errors, as follows:

91909 - Failed to see the knight fork, losing material, after your 16. ... g5.

89669 - Resigned after Bxf6, thinking that you had to lose significant material, when I think you still have some resources.

83612 - Dropped a knight at move 11.

Again, I haven't put a computer on these to see if I'm completely accurate on my assessments, but I'd say that your ability to see up to 5 moves ahead is not being effectively and regularly exercised.

This, I believe, is the first thing to fix: failing to see opponents' or your tactical opportunities.

As for fixing it, certainly studying tactics and looking harder in your games for tactical affairs can help. One does need knowledge, but chess is largely a game of skill development as well. So, ...

I recommend looking over your losses to identify these occurrences, try to think through why you didn't see them, make a flashcard set with the tactics YOU missed, look through those periodically, and play with a focus on not missing tactics. If you have to play even longer games to do so, then do that - but you might not have to.

Best wishes ...

Good answers! 

I think you should stop spending time studying openings, and do lots of tactical problems.

You say you have a full understanding of tactics and positional play, but if you really did, you would be a much, much higher rated player.

Like paulgottlieb said "why do you think you're losing?"

The chess improvement process largely follows this: play games, make mistakes, critically and honestly look over your games to find these mistakes, make a mental note to not repeat the mistake, repeat.

Like others have said, if your rating is in the 1200s you're losing to basic tactical ideas (forks, pins, skewers, removing the guard).  If you're familiar with these ideas already then consider playing longer time controls so you have time to avoid the same mistakes.

If you don't challenge yourself to not repeat these mistakes, then you'll never get better no matter how many books you read.  On the up side, the more you practice avoiding forks or hanging pieces for example, the easier it will become until it's second nature. 

At that point you can move on to correcting new mistakes (like we all do :) but in the meantime you can enjoy your new level of play.

Oh, I see your time controls are long already.  In that case you better not be moving quickly and finishing with many minutes (10+) left on your clock!

It's important once you chose a move to make (lets say you want to move your knight or something) try to find a good move for your opponent.  They may capture, defend, move away, or ignore your move all together.  At a minimum look for any check or capture they can play.  If you're still satisfied with your choice (the knight move) then only at that point make it.

This is often hard for some players.  Make sure your eyes are traveling across the board and looking at the opponents pieces.  Where can they move, what can they capture?  You can even make it a mini game or challenge... try to find your opponents most annoying reply! (the one you'd hate to see the most) because you can be sure after your move that's exactly what they'll be looking for themselves!

You are a unique being as even the Kasparovs and Kramniks of this world cannot make this claim.