Despite playing poorly today, finally got to 800. To answer my own question, there is a big difference as far as an 800 player will almost always beat a 600 player, on the other hand, it does not take much improvement to move up those 200 points. Just watching some videos on developing my minor pieces and watching out for bishops and such when moving my queen and being more careful in general was pretty much enough. Of course I still play very poorly and still blunder pieces without compensation. Oh and I'm more careful with pawns. I still lose them needlessly, but I realize how important losing just one is and I get upset with myself when I lose one that my opponent was clearly targetting and I missed.
One thing I notice which doesn't improve all that much between the levels is players failing to go for mate when my defense is weak. They'll take out a minor piece on the other side of the board instead of a combination attack on my king which I would have no idea of how to prevent.
By the by, this is all chess.com ratings, I suspect I'd actually be 700 or something irl. Too many players resign needlessly. I'm not talking about when I'm up a queen plus another piece, but I take their knight or something and they just quit or they just quit randomly, maybe something came up at the house or whatever.
when you improve at... pretty much anything it is not necessarily that one is improving his “best game” but, rather, improving the “weakest/worst game”
bringing your lowest more in line with your best and your best will slowly improve, as a by product almost, with constant work on out weakest areas
consistency as #16 mentions
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i looked real quick at a recent game vs an 800
1.e4 and next two moves were pawn moves- none of which protected e4 itself, you made an early g3 (to fianchetto apparently) get out knight and kingside castle?; you did fianchetto but very next move hung your bishop (there was no xray pin here) luckily you opponent missed
this is common even into 1000’s moving on autopilot
your first move is e4- establishing a strong center- build on that; make moves which reinforce your center have your pieces protect your central pawns until you can maybe get more pawns to support each other as a simple plan
and make sure you move your pieces safely; be hesitant to make early moves into opponents territory;
your posts are coherent so you obviously are aware enough to improve through these early brackets
take ownership of your moves and your games; you do not want to make a move where you go back and review and when you ask yourself “why did i move there?” and then not have an answer- or, better put, really find out the why as to why you “didnt know why you moved there”