No improvement in chess

I have been playing for a long time and am stuck at being around 1500 blitz in chess.com.

I just choose the same setups in the opening over and over again. It's like I have reduced chess to a game of chance.

Can anyone suggest a way to improve. I keep doing tactics but in tactics I know that there is a way in real games I don't often see tactics and play in an extermely boring manner.

How can I improve. I like reading opening books and to some extent books on strategy but hate tactics.

I find the game of chess totally confusing and as a result it reduces my enjoyment.

Are you interested in playing long games, or OTB games, or do you prefer to play blitz ?

Try playing games with longer time controls, so you can think more and (try to) apply any new ideas, concepts whatever you learned.

Thanks for the very much helping sugggestion "peter Leeflang"

Ummmm... What Peter said. I'm lower rated but I still find joy in playing and reading its literature. Let go of the rating hangup and embrace the creative side. Sure, it may lose every so often, but on the other hand it would always have the potential for producing a beautiful game.

You've been playing for a long time without improving?

Then you are as good as you are ever going to be, everybody eventually hits that wall. 

I think Peter nailed it. Long slow games are good for two reasons:

1.) calculation practice, which seperates the men from the boys

2.) it's a time commitment, so if you lose, the reason why you lost is seared into your head (it hurts more) and hopefully you won't make the same error again. You can't simply say "damn," forget the game, and move on to the next blitz match.

Also know, improvement has a latency period between study and results. I studied tactics 3 hours a day for around 3.5 months. Afterwards, my online rating actually DROPPED for a few months. Then, after that, my OTB rating shot from 1400 - 1750 in about 2 weeks.

If that were true then we could all be masters. I've known a lot of people over the years that played all their lives and couldn't hit 1600. 

I've never understood the naive notion that if you play chess and keep studying, you will keep improving onto infinity. This is not true of anything else, why would chess be any different?.  

Solve 10 tactical puzzles a day. I keep doing this & I feel I'm improving. I use the android app 'iChess Free' which contains 1000 tactical puzzles to do this because Tactics Trainer only offers 3 problems a day. Tactics is the most important part of chess. If you do this everyday, you will see tactics more often. Don't play Blitz. Play only standard time control games in live chess. I suggest you to play 'Online (Correspondence) Chess'. It's a good way to improve your chess skills. Don't move too quickly in online chess. Use the "Analysis Board" to calculate variations to find the best move. In this way, you'll find amazing moves!

Please look at My blog about candidate moves :). I put lots of work in it and I think it is really helpful for all players under 2200 elo. I played a tournament with a 2100 elo Performance ( my elo is 2012) after I understood this topic. It is so important and you will have a completly different way to think during your chess games. It also helps you to use your tactical skills, because you have to understand whether a position is strategical ( no tactics) or tactical ( therefore you study tactical motivs!) . With the knowledge how to use candidate moves and how to look for plans you will definetly improve your play! Just remember the 3 steps in My blog and try to use them in any long time game you play. Good luck and success, Till_98 :)

To improve, read the courses of GM Igor Smirnov at Remote Chess Academy http://rcaofficialpartner.blogspot.com/

and also watch the video

Win Easily - 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnV8J53n7jI

Win Easily - 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6N_fHi-AYgQ

How to eliminate blunders 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmCukNEs7lc

and more at http://www.youtube.com/user/ChessStrike1/videos

BEST is http://rcaofficialpartner.blogspot.com/

Another aspect is to analyse your own game afterwards, especially the losses. If you have a friend that is better at chess than you show it to him, he may see some things you were missing.