Is learning positional play the next thing to do when around 1200 ?

So I want to increase my rapid rating, before on a different account, I got up to 1300-1350 but for some reason now it's hard for me to reach that. I stopped playing chess a couole months ago, now occasionally do some puzzles. My daily puzzle rating is 2200. So my tactics should probably be a little better than 1300 in general. The rest I need is learning openings and positional play. I know how to learn about openings, any books, courses foe how to learn the latter? The problems I face are: 1. Don't know how to respond when I know some opening and the opponent doesn't play the best move (I don't know how to get the advantage) 2. Don't know when is good to trade a piece to get my opponent to make doubled pawns(whenever I have the chance, I do it) 3. Don't know anything about having advantage on squares of certain color, for example if my opponent has most control on black squares, I don't know how his position is better. 4. For me thinking being good at endgsmes means knowing how to mate someone with all piece variations, which is the most beginner thing. And trade pieces when you are ahead. Don't have any clue about what to do else for endgames. Any small advantages in general, I think I'm okay to not blunder that much, if I don't get into some really new opening for me. But I feel like the opponents are getting the better of me by playing good positional play. First time posting and not that experienced chess player so if you think I need ti study something else as well feel free to tell me

Chess.com has excellent lessons on positional play by Jeremy Silman.

For endgames, learn king and pawn vs king, it is one of the most common endgames. Use all your pieces(including the king), put them on active squares and try to win pawns. Try to get a passed pawn, this will tie down your opponents pieces and make it harder for them.

I don’t know. Looking at my own play (1400 rapid), almost all of my games are decided by tactics - and not complicated deep tactics. Right now, I’m trying to focus on taking time to improve my thinking and tactical calculation. I believe if I can reduce my tendency to overlook my opponent’s tactical ideas, and miss fewer of their mistakes, I’ll see big improvement.

With that said, I’m also studying endings with focus on rook and K+p.

I tried the Silman course, but found the material largely too advanced for me right now. So, most of my study time is on tactics and calculation.

@1

"My daily puzzle rating is 2200."
++ How much time do you spend solving a puzzle?
How much time on deciding on your move in a game?

"learning openings" ++ Waste of time and effort

"positional play" ++ Comes from endgame study.

"I know how to learn about openings" ++ Do not do that.

"any books, courses foe how to learn the latter?" ++ Chess Fundamentals - Capablanca

"how to respond when I know some opening and the opponent doesn't play the best move"
++ Then think.

"when is good to trade a piece to get my opponent to make doubled pawns"
++ Usually not. The bishop's pair and the open file are more valuable.

"whenever I have the chance, I do it" ++ That is usually wrong.

"advantage on squares of certain color"
++ A good bishop does not stand on the color of its own pawns;
a bad bishop stands on the color of its own pawns.

"how to mate someone with all piece variations" ++ Practice the 5 basic checkmates: KQ vs. K, KR vs. K, KBB vs. K, KBN vs. K, KNN vs. KP. The latter will also teach you why BxN is often bad.

"what to do else for endgames" ++ Study Chess Fundamentals - Capablanca

"I need ti study something else as well feel free to tell me"
++ Most important is to analyse your lost games to learn from your mistakes.

A common misconception is that it's possible to get an advantage against all of the opening moves that aren't the "best" move, but this is wrong. Most moves are just equal, and even when it is possible to get an advantage, in most cases the advantage comes from developing quickly, controlling the center, and having a safe king (in other words following the opening principles). You only "punish" their bad move by having a better middlegame position.

So don't worry about getting an advantage in the opening. Focus on following the opening principles as much as you can.

 

That depends on lots of different things. Entire books have been written on pawn structure so it's hard to answer quickly.

I guess the basic idea behind doubled pawns as a weakness is they're something you can slowly surround and win, typically in an endgame... so early in the game, if you're rushing to double lots of pawns, that might not be a good idea since you might fall behind in piece activity. It's better to double one set of pawns and then, in a sense, ignore them until after move 40 so to speak (in other words ignore them until the endgame).

Doubled pawns can also cripple a pawn majority, which is also something you don't exploit until late in the endgame.

(To avoid writing a whole book in a forum post I'm trying to keep it simple)

 

For example e3 is a dark square. If you have no control over e3, and your opponent puts a knight there, it's attacking lots of light squares. If they put a rook or queen there it's attacking light and dark squares. In other words a dark square weakness is used to attack all of the surrounding square (of both colors).

Anyway that's a little advanced. The most important thing to keep in mind is piece activity. Look for your pieces that are not mobile and improve them. If all your pieces are mobile, look for ways to put them on the opponent's side of the board or bring them into contact with weak pawns (base of pawn chain, isolated, doubled, backward) or the opponent's king. Thinking like that is more important than thinking of weak dark squares.

 

Each endgame has its own ideas. Queen engdames are different from bishop endgames, and rook vs rook with pawns on both sides is different from R vs R with pawns on only one side.

The most important part of any endgame is piece activity, and generally you want to be able to bring your pieces into contact with weak enemy pawns... but sure, you can learn more about endgames by studying an endgame book for example.

 

At your level what this usually means is you're attacking too early and your opponents are doing a better job of not attacking until ALL of their pieces on the back rank are no longer on their original squares. Or if you are developing all of your pieces, they're doing it faster than you because you make too many captures or pawn moves.

But sure, study a book on stragety / positional play, that's part of improving.

An example of my last comment.

After 7.bxc white has 2 pawns in the center and 1 piece developed.
You have zero pawns in the center and zero pieces developed.

It's true black's structure is very solid, so you can sort of get away with it, but this is just bad form for a 1200 player. Sure a GM can fall behind in development, because they know the risks and when their opponent wont be able to punish it. In your case you're doing it accidentally and it's going to get you bad middlegame positions.

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And look at the position after 15...Qa5.
White has all the minor pieces and queen off the back rank, the king is castled, and has two pawns in the center. The only white piece on the back rank still on its original square is the a1 rook.

Black has 4 back rank pieces on their original squares and zero pawns in the center.

These are the sorts of positional things you should start thinking about. You fell behind because you were trying to attack so you were doing things like moving your queen multiple times and pushing a lot of pawns. Attacking comes later, the first 10-15 moves are about development.

Improving Your Chess - Resources for Beginners and Beyond...

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/improving-your-chess-resources-for-beginners-and-beyond

Good Positional Chess, Planning & Strategy Books for Beginners and Beyond...

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/introduction-to-positional-chess-planning-strategy

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell

Your mistakes aren't due to positional play. Play longer games and keep working on tactics. Chess strategy for club players is an excellent book for strategy when the time comes though.

The important thing is to have the right balance and not focus on one aspect of the game to the detriment of all others. At the 1200 level some basic positional ideas along with continued practice at tactics, and a bit of endgame study, and analyzing all of your games, this should be enough to reach 1400 or 1500 in time.

1. If you don't know what to do when your opponent varies from the main line in your chosen opening, then you don't "know" that opening after all. "Knowing" an opening isn't about memorizing lines... the lines that are considered "best" change from year to year anyway. "Knowing" an opening involves becoming familiar with the most critical squares in that set-up, with the typical Pawn-levers available to each side, the typical center-Pawn structures that can arise and the typical plans and tactics for each side in that opening.

Opening memorization is over-rated anyway. Your only important job in the opening is to reach a middle-game position in which you feel comfortable and confident. Nothing else matters.

2. The major drawback of doubled Pawns is their reduced mobility compared to healthy Pawns. A constellation of doubled Pawns on c3 / c4 / d4 have only two possible moves (d4-d5 and c4-c5) while the same three Pawns undoubled on b2 / c4 / d4 have four possible moves. This is typically just a minor drawback, especially since the newly-doubled Pawn... say, the one on c3 after the opponent plays Bxc3+ / bxc3... can probably control some useful squares (such as d4) from its new position. 

Bottom line: the theoretical drawbacks of doubled Pawns are often over-rated. Don't bother doubling the opponent's Pawns unless you stand to gain some specific advantage from it... and no, "I've doubled his Pawns!" doesn't count as an advantage per se.

3. Weak on squares of one color: read up on Weak Color Complexes.

4. Endgames: King-and-multiple-Pawn endgames are critical. So are Rook-and-multiple-Pawn endgames. Those two between them teach you about half of what you need to know about endgames. All the rest are relatively minor.

5. Positional play : read this:

GM Larry Evans' method of static analysis - Chess Forums - Chess.com

... and play over the sample games.

The short answer to your question is to identify your biggest weaknesses and work on those until they are strengths.  Looking at your most recent games, I do not see positional concepts as the reasons you are losing games.