Im just not improving.

I like silman books too

I've been stuck in the 900s for over a year ... I decided to focus my study on something entirely different in 2025 - calculation - and have started a course on Chessable. I am only doing puzzles that relate to the course. It's too early to see any results, but my way of looking at the board has totally changed in a way that feels more focused and structured. We shall see ...

Reading books about positional chess has changed my view of the board from brute calculation to trying to improve my position with each move. Of course, I still miss a lot of things and I'm not an expert, but any move at least trying to achieve a positional goal has a point unlike the moves I made before (regardless if the positional idea was right or not)

do any of you play in OTB tournaments? playing 90+30 helped me improve more than anything else.

Actually you have to put improve 2100s it's not just about "improving its about improving faster OR better you can't stop blundering but you can limit the consequences of it even gms hang mate in one sometimes (eg chessbrahs loss to a 100 elo) I would recommend being able to create the opportunity for your opponent to blunder more (as in make them blusner more while being less greedy or impatient )

No I only play blitz but I could play a couple games depending on the time i haven't actually played otb at all yet

Kinda like what you do with blitz actually tho that's also what you have to do for a lot of time controls

I encourage you to play OTB. Online ratings are highly variable, especially at rapid and blitz time controls. If you are really interested in improving, slow play will give you a much better idea of your actual playing level and what you need to improve.

I play OTB and it's pretty fun. One thing I found was that people usually play stronger OTB

Endgame_Horizon, bear in mind you are already at an extremely high level, and are in the 99.9th percentile of rapid players! It becomes harder to improve as you get better, so it's normal to get stuck for a few months at a time. Try not to get stressed and just treat each game calmly and enjoy it. There's a risk you'll burn out otherwise. Also, if you look at the rating distribution of all players, you'll see the number of players who make it to 2200 is only about half of the 2100s, the number of 2300s half again the number of 2200s, etc. so you're already at a level where you need to work very hard to make progress against your opponents, who are as serious and ambitious as you.

Any book titles that you would recommend for someone just getting started in positional chess? (The Chessable course that I am taking focuses on 3-ply positional mini-plans. For example, creating a weak pawn)

Try

Read up to page 52 (part one) of how to reassess your chess, then read all of the amateur's mind, then read the rest of how to reassess your chess

you might need to play more. you can read a million recipes but you won't know how to cook until you get in the kitchen.

Endgame_Horizon what joke are you spewing its easy to get to 2000 - ask the thousands of players here under 1000 under 500 heck under 150 if its easy to get over 2000 ---- you are joke or are you a trolling type person wanting comments

Adding here from a kind user in my inbox: Silman gave this advice for the 3rd edition, for the 4th edition (the one with a knight on the cover) just start with amateur's mind and then do reassess your chess

I dont have a coach rn

Actually, I have played in one recently and did quite well I'd say. I just don't think going through the effort of going to a tournament and having everything planned out especially for its enormous cost is something I can afford frequently.

Of course, what you say is true, but as the saying goes, "Prevention is better than cure", or translating it to chess, Not blundering is better than minimizing the effects afterwards. The key to getting better is to reduce your most basic mistakes, and for me it's to reduce blundering solely.