improving

i have been stuck around 1400 for a while now and would like some help to improve, i was told that tactics decide most games at this level and have been working on a lot of puzzles etc. lately but have not been seeing great improvement. I know i have to work on other things aswell but do not know what is good for my level. Any help is appreciated, thank you!

According to Daniel Rensch you can get to 1600 "just" by blundering less, and when i look at my own games, he's right. 90% of the games I lose are lost not because of some superior opponent strategy, but because I do something stupid. So try to put more thought into each move. I'm trying the same.

sounds good, playing long time controls should help with that on here too, would you recomend reading any books, if so any suggestions? ive read a few and theyve helped but i dont know what to read next.

You can get to 1600 just by blundering less and if you learn your tactics much better than what you know now, you will blunder a lot less. 

to learn tactics do i just need to do puzzles here or chesstempo ?

What are we talking about? What kind of rating and where? 1600 long time control FIDE raiting? 1600 bullet rating here or blitz one somewhere else? I think it's all different. I agree that avoiding blunders is the first thing that must be done. But do tactics really help with it? I have my doubts.

i was talking about standard chess i feel the same about tactics, ive done endless puzzles but dont see any signifigant improvement

study your position. make sure your pieces are well placed and protected. keep your pawns in good patterns. study game of high rated playrs. look where they post their pieces and look at their pawn patterns.

Could you provide us with number of tactics you have done? Tactics are good but it's not the only thing. How about your board vision and endgame knowledge? Could you checkmate a king with a knight and a bishop for instance?

hell, l can't checkmate with a bishop & knight.

I've heard of GMs who can't either.

When you lose it is because you have a weakness (I like to call it a blindspot) in your game. Go over your losses. Find out why you lost.Then remember not to do that again. What was used against you can be used by you against another. In other words, it was a tactic you probably haven't seen yet and at the same time you know what the weak move was when the tactic occured. It is all a learning process.

So maybe it's what you need to do beside tactics. Basic stuff first. Train yourself to checkmate with two bishops, bishop and knight, queen vs knight, etc. And train yourself to do it fast, without any hesitation. Also you will learn how pieces are cooperating which is very important. And speaking about tactics. Soviet Union school has approach to solve simple tactics but in a very huge number. It's not big deal if you miss complex tactic but you mustn't miss a simple one.

I doubt the time and effort needed to learn bishop+knight vs. king is worth it. I mean, how many games in your career ended draw because you didn't know how to do that? One?

Better focus on openings and tactics.

I think it's worth doing because it teaches how pieces are cooperating. I'm sure super GMs know how to checkmate with Bishop and Knight.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bishop_and_knight_checkmate#Grandmasters_failing_to_mate

ive actually had a few games with bishop, knight and king vs king, i know all basic checkmates and can do them with relatively fast speed i do a number of different tactical and endgame puzzles on chesstempo. Deflection, pins forks, overloaded pieces, the whole shabang. I really liked bcoburns answer because it relates to my games ive played recently, a few of the lost ones were because of poorly placed pieces my opponent took advantage of. I look at some gm games but maybe should start seeing more. Any websites for this, i use chessbase, is that any good?

I've heard this. But it's a joke for me, it's not hard to learn.

I am 73 years old and cannot remember one time when I had to play a bishop and knight checkmate. 

oreochess91, you need a strong player to go over your games to see what are your weak points and then go from there. 

yea i've had some weird games that resulted in this ending a few times, and how strong of a player would you recommend for this, i know a couple strond players near me but if you mean NM or IM level i don't know how to get one of them to go over them