My improvement in tactics do not show in my game performance

Hi everyone! I was interested in improving my chess for quite some time. I read in many posts here and other sources that the best way to improve was doing tactics.

I started doing hundreds of chess problems, say minimum 10 / day (usually much more); but this didn't help me improve my game very much, this is reflected objectively in my ratings:

Tactics

chess.com: 1732

chesstempo.com:

-blitz: 1636

-Standard: 1903

Actual chess performance

Blitz: 1171

Standard: 1334

Bullet: 1092

Looking at these differences you can see the problem, at first I thought I just needed to keep doing them everyday and eventually my chess would catch up with my tactics; maybe the amount of games I played and problems I did wasn't high enough.

But that's definitely not it. I have more than 700 tactics done in chess.com, and 3000 problems done in chesstempo (around half blitz and half standard). I can generally "see" the different tactical motifs and calculate some moves ahead and find the line that ends up winning material /mating because I know it's there.

But I find myself losing to a range of people that hangs pieces and doesn't understand the basics... how can I improve aside from doing more tactics? If I analyze my games I see huge amounts of bad moves and blunders, and sometimes very advanced-type moves based on many move lines; it's not consistent.

I know playing more games like this is not going to help me improve, but tactics aren't helping me either.

Some games I'll do some really nice several-move combination/sacrifice that cause some of my oponents to think I'm cheating; and other games I'll just drop pieces and pawns like I didn't know the rules, and for this last issue I don't think doing more complicated tactics is going to help me.

The point of this post would be, what would you reccommend me to do to start improving some more, aside from tactics? Thank you!

Edit: 

I'll follow advice and analyze the games I play to get better; also watch some videos that help me with my strategy, which I know I lack completely.

Also, would anyone here reccommend any specific books I would benefit from reading? I have no endgame knowledge (aside from playing based on calculation, which can be unreliable in complex endgames); during the opening I'm usually "out of book" in my head by move 5.

Just as a side note, while I'm interested in reading, I have no desire to read about more tactics puzzles, please omit these type of books

Thanks everyone for your answers!

Play more chess at slower time controls. Normally I wouldn't give this advice. A lot of people love to give this advice, I am not one of them, so when I look at your profile and suggest this based off of the games that you've played I hope you can appreciate that I really mean it. You certainly do play too high of a percentage of quick games. No doubt about it.

I agree, play slower time controls.

Get used to not making the first movement that comes to mind. After thinking your movement, think the replies your opponent can make.

Only with this, with your tactics level, you should improve a lot. For example, you will seldom drop a piece if you take the time to think your opponent answer.

Tactics are just the means to execute your strategy. 

Looked at your game against pesquerox, why you not play 20...Rg3+? I think you're just too nice.

I see that your flag is ARG so you know speak spanish.

Te recomiendo un artículo reciente https://www.chess.com/blog/alfilinquieto/el-rincoacuten-del-aficionado-estudiar-vs-entrenar-vs-competir

Ningun problema hay en no progresar, pero cuando se cree que estamos haciendo lo correcto y no funciona es frustrante. Espero te arroje luz.

I had the exact same experience, repeatedly, from rating 1150-1500.  

Not joking - every time I went to a pure-tactics study plan for a few days, my rating went DOWN for a few days. It sucked! 

A lot of players in the 1150-1400 chess.com blitz rating range have tactics similar to your/my level but a big difference between the higher rated players is that they play more solid developing moves that given them better chances. I actually find that 1400s still blunder a lot, but only if you press them. When I was 1200, I just couldn't press their position, and they'd rarely blunder (confirmed by computer analysis).

With your tactical ability, the key to forward progress is to study nontactical chess. Nothing too complicated - we're talking really basic, fundamentals of chess openings and middlegames. Stuff I'm sure you'll say "I know that already" when I talk don't move pieces twice in the opening, put rooks on open files, preserve pawn structure, but I guarantee you are screwing up repeatedly in all your games.

A simple fix: watch a lot of GM Akobian's videos on youtube from St.Louis chess. Watch the same video over again until you can guess all the moves correctly, and you'll fix many of these problems of yours. Interestingly, I haven't found a single book that does this well, as the books tend to focus on 'more complex' strategy, but rarely say anything about the super basic (but critical) stuff. In Akobian's vidoes, there's a class of average-strength chessplayers watching, so they'll make most of the bad suggestions you're thinking of! 

And for those that doubt this advice, compared OP's ratings to mine:

His:

chesstempo: 1732

chess.com blitz: 1171

Mine:

chesstempo: 1654 (LOWER than the OP's. I have never been rated higher than 1675 on chesstsempo, actually.)

chess.com blitz: 1560 (significantly higher than the OP's despite my definite tactical inferiority!) 

 And when I was 1200 on chess.com in 5-min blitz, my chesstempo rating was about 1600. Not much worse than it is now despite being 300 points weaker on chess.com blitz ratings - which is at least one entire class difference!

Chess isn't all tactics.

The tactics are good for the things that are good: Patterns and concentration.

In the worst case, guide you to desesperate moves. I mean, if you know that is a winning combination you will move the first one correct and go on but you don´t see the line complete! I talk for my self in that case.

In 10 months of being a member...

Bullet: Total Games 1,436

Blitz: Total Games 817

Standard: Total Games 87

Online: Total Games 0

And you wonder why you arent improving?

I've got 12,000 blitz games and 3 standard games. Still improving!(Gained 300 points in 2 yrs)

I disagree that you have to play standard in order to see results. From my own experience, I primarily played 1min chess games growing up. I think improving requires a combination of recognizing mistakes and identifying new patterns. I suggest analyzing your games briefly after every blitz game to see where you went wrong and how you could adjust your play.

I put one of your standard games, against matob, into an engine. For some reason. 

It didn't really go bananas until 13.Be2 (missing Nf4, which your opponent found.) So, you missed a tactic... of your opponent. One that you probably would have found for yourself in a flash. So, focus on prophylaxis more maybe... foiling opponent's plans.

In addition to watching Akobian's videos I also suggest you watch Dan Heisman's videos on ICC. Dan says to improve you need to play slow dow, take the time to  look at each move. When the opponent moves, what does he threaten? Then look at your moves, if there are several moves possible look at each one and decide the best move. Play safely and carefully is his number one rule. Don't leave loose pieces around! Mobility of the pieces is also very important. 

I would advise you study the great games of masters, start with Paul Morphy, look at his games in debth, try to find candidate moves before every move, and try to understand his plans.. When you are tired of Morphy you find another master player. My chess mentor told me to study all the world champions in from the first one and up to Magnus Carlsen. It helps, but it takes time..

I think the real point is - 

Playing a lot of blitz does not equal no improvement. 

Playing blitz mindlessly, without analyzing your losses, and not studying to further your chess, will reinforce bad habits and is bad for play. Playing blitz but analyzing games, eliminating errors, and getting better at playing a variety of positions, will only improve your game.

If you analyze your blitz games, you can get a lot out of them.  I'm not even that good at blitz, but the differential between my blitz analysis vs my long-game analysis for the first 20-30 moves is usually very, very small. I make the same misjudgments in blitz that I do in longer games for the most part, until the last 30 seconds or so. 

I think this whole 'you only improve by playing long games' is a bunch of bull. Long games are good stuff, but they're not the end all be all of improvement. I'd strongly argue that analyzing your blitz losses with a coach (or engine, if you don't have a coach) is more valuable than just playing long games and NOT analyzing them postmortem.

You can fix a lot of mistakes by not repeating your blitz judgment errors.  

You know exactly why this misunderstanding pops up! 

You definitely know the ad-nauseum posts by people about how 'chess is 100% tactics', referring to Michael de La Maza, chess engines that are pure tactics, etc. This pseudoadvice is like nonstop on these forums.

And then it gets worse when people look at a player's games, and immediately point out the tactical shot that lost them the game, and conclude (erroneously in most cases) - 'if you study more tactics, you could have avoided that.' And as you know, in most cases, with better nontactical play leading to that position, that tactical shot would never have even arisen in the first place. 

A couple months ago i would have asked you not to post this reply.  I made a living off of players that thought they were "tactical", but since i dont play in tournaments anymore feel free to spread this advice :-)

Listen to these guys, they're right. You don't need to see a tactic to prevent it.

Also in the game I quoted the engine said you had +1.4 for seeing a4, initiating a queenside attack. Which, you didn't do. Once again, the problem appears to be, you're too nice.

Again, strongly disagree.

THe key is to take the time to analyze your blitz losses. ANy time you are fixing your errors in thought, you are improving. And as I said, most of my blitz errors are the same as my long-game errors, despite the faster time control.

I would agree that solely playing blitz and not studying or analyzing losses will lead to worse results. 

I still feel strongly that playing a long game but NOT analyzing it (well) is inferior to analyzing and studying a series of blitz losses. There is nothing magical about long games that guarantees improvement - if you are making bad decisions in long games, you are reinforcing bad habits just as badly as you do in blitz.