Need help: Scattered chess knowlodge

Hello, I'm a seriously dedicated chess player.  It was just over a year ago I started playing chess above a casual level, and just 2 months ago I became serious with my chess training.

I've put in tons of hours into my chess, prehaps 25-30 hours weekly.  My tactics are (by at least what OTB/tactical puzzles tell me) at the level of an 1800. I know of many, many positional concepts.  But I can't seem to put it together cohesively, even in G/30 I can end up not even looking at 1 variation, or completely ignoring my pawn structure. So I'm looking for recommendations for

• Books & articles on the fundamentals (not so basic its going over how the horsey moves however =P).
  
• Books, articles, & activities to tie my knowlodge together (Fischer played h6, because blah blah blah.  You should play b3, because blah blah blah)
• Advice on what to do differantly

I'm thinking that relearning the basics, and getting these concepts better engraved into my mind would do me good.  But does anybody have some advice on organizing my knowlodge and learning to go over moves systematically?

Nothing more fundamental than endgame studying... I find it helps me "see" pawn structure and plan beyond just the short term. I think as far as putting everything together cohesively, the best way to do it is to study master games. The best and easiest way to do that I think is to use a database program, and once in awhile supplement some annotated games too so you can hear their thoughts and how they think. All your knowledge won't help you if you don't know how to put it into action, and the masters show you knowledge in action in their games. Take my advice with a grain of salt, as I'm just an average player struggling to improve my game too.

Edit: Some classic books on the fundamentals you might consider are: Lasker's Manual of Chess, Tarrasch's The Game of Chess, Capablanca's Chess Fundamentals, and maybe the first half of Nimzowitsch's My System. I think any would be a good choice they're all highly praised.

I like Watson's Mastering the Chess Openings vol 1 and 2. His first four chapters are good reviews of the fundamentals and significance of openings. Of course, openings never win you a chess game but it does help you get to a middle game with some sort of plan and hopefully from the middle game you can learn how to win the endgame. I also think if you want to really improve your game you have to play OTB games with decent time controls. While online play is fun, quick and exciting, improvement will come with the investment of time and mental effort in OTB. I have played OTB since 1972 and while I learned much in blitz, I only learned more when I had to put in a few hours on one game.

NM-or-bust wrote:I've put in tons of hours into my chess, prehaps 25-30 hours weekly. 

 just keep at it, two months is nothing. getting better at chess is a very slow process, taking years or decades rather than months. but if you keep putting the hours in, the results will follow. just watch out for burnout. it's your worst enemy, and can stop your training for months or even permanently.

improvement won't happen steadily either, but instead in sudden jumps after a period of no progress. you'll even take a step back every once in a while, we all do. but you'll always bounce back if you just keep training.

most things in chess are a combination of experience & muscle memory, so keep doing over and over things you already 'know'. simply 'knowing' just won't cut it, you need to go deeper, if you get what I mean. burn it into your core, to the point where you can 'speak' chess moves like you speak your native tongue. especially the simple things.

instead of reading, drill. if you learn any single chessbook from cover to cover, and drill all the examples until you wear your board out, you'll learn far more than from simply reading a 100 books. reading about a technique in chess is only 1% of the job, the rest 99% is hard labour, sweat, blood and repetition.

NM-or-bust wrote:Books & articles on the fundamentals (not so basic its going over how the horsey moves however =P).
Books, articles, & activities to tie my knowlodge together (Fischer played h6, because blah blah blah.  You should play b3, because blah blah blah) Advice on what to do differantly

Go to www.chesscafe.com and read all of Dan Heisman's "Novice Nook" columns.