Aw doug no feedback on my post? :(
Sorry Zen,
Hehe. You wrote a very beautiful conglomeration of ideas, most of which I have already either done or am working on. I greatly appreciated your interest and the time you took to post.
Play 1000s of live chess games, not zero.
Chess books that have helped me tremendously... Well I can think of three right off the top of my head. I started with IM Jeremy Silman's book "Reassess your Chess" which is a great book to begin with and then I think the next two books that helped me by any large amount was Alexander Kotov's "Think like a Grandmaster" and "Play like a Grandmaster". The latter of those two is somewhat advanced and could be tough to grasp if you haven't looked at a lot of chess literature. I have read and studied over 300 books though. Those are just the three that seemed to have helped the most.
I'm only 2100 or so, so I'm not sure if my advice will be of any use to you.
You sound like you are ready for a more in-depth look at strategy. Have you read either Pawn Power in Chess by Kmoch or Pawn Structure Chess by Soltis?
The first of those books (Pawn Power) changed my entire paradigm for the game, and by the time I had absorbed it all I had gained a couple of hundred rating points. Be warned! Kmoch invents his own arcane terminology (levers, rams, duos, phalynx, twin, etc) and you will need to learn it in order to understand the book. It is well worth the effort, though, because the book is a work of genius.
Pawn Structure Chess by Soltis covers much the same ground, using conventional terminology, so it's easier to understand... but (IMO) it lacks that spark of genius that animates Kmoch's book. Maybe read one and then the other?
My System by Nimzovich will also open new positional horizons for you (and to a lesser extent, the sequel Chess Praxis). Restriction and Blockade, Over-Protection, play against doubled Pawns and against weak color complexes are all highlighted in Nimzovich's book.
The man has been gone for 7 years. Let us allow his profile to RIP.
Aw doug no feedback on my post? :(