Recommendations for what to buy (in chess)

I'm an unrated USCF/Fide player, but I would like to eventually be a NM (I'm probably 1600ish). I don't plan on entering tournaments till I'm 2000 standard and blitz on this site. I already have a chess board, but no chess books. I'm not interested in getting a chess.com membership. Chesstempo is great for tactics. Does anyone have any recommendations on what to buy in chess to help improve me as a player? (no chess steroids please)

Some things to consider:

--A detailed evaluation by a much stronger player, going over a good number of your games and giving an opinion on areas of strength and weakness.  This can help a lot to guide future self-study.  If this isn't feasible, you'll need to try to do it for yourself.  Usually we have weaknesses in areas we don't like to study, so if you don't do an evaluation, you'll continue to avoid your weak areas (they aren't fun) and get stuck.

--Books (or videos if that's better for you) that address your specific weaknesses.

I'd also mention that in my opinion tournaments are super fun and a good way to improve; there's no reason to avoid them until a certain rating.  But you'll have to decide that for yourself.

I agree with the other poster. I don't see why you should wait until your 2000 rating here.Starting off in USCF around 1600ish is extremely respectable and a good way tom improve your game is to play slower rated USCF games.

If you play at a given strength consistently, in my experience your USCF rating will fairly quickly hit that level--it's not necessary to try to "protect" it, unless USCF tournaments are rare in your area.

FIDE is another matter.  My region has swarms of young players with horrendously low FIDE ratings, and FIDE tournaments are rare and expensive; if I was trying to have a high FIDE rating I might think twice about playing in FIDE tournaments right now.  (I'm playing in them anyway--it's good experience and I figure I'm doing my part to fix the problem of underrated kids by donating them my points....

Ultimately it's up to you, but I'd really recommend against thinking of tournament play primarily in terms of rating.  The goal is to improve; the ratings will follow.  I ended up quitting chess for many years because I got too concerned about ratings and it interfered with enjoying myself.  Now I wish I hadn't!

Buy entry fees into rated tournaments.  Tournaments, tournaments, tournaments, at G/60 or longer.  And then analyze your games, and commit them to memory to the extent that you are able.  Your game will improve holistically. 

I would also second the other posters' comments wholeheartedly.

A database like chessbase is useful, but it's one of the more expensive chess items.

Online collection like the website chessgames.com is a useful free resource to know about. For a collection of recent games TWIC or simply http://www.2700chess.com/ as a free and easy way to view recent top level games.

Free software like SCID and Winboard are also useful to know exist.

Tournaments and join a chess club if you are not a member of one already. Tournament play is very different and the level of thinking you have to do again is different. You also get to see some amazing chess being played and talk to other players.

Play classic chess not Blitz. Everyone blunders in blitz, hangs pieces etc its not for everyone and it is very popular. 

Books too. Basford (sp) chess openings or BCO might be worth buying but you can get most of the content and analysis online now.

 To get better it's not necessary to play tournament games, but it's probably a lot easier. By talking and analyzing after games you can learn a lot... not because a lot is said, but you get a 2nd perspective on positions you spent a long time considering, sometimes from players much better than you. So those insights are completely tailored for your improvement.

And it's more than just ____ move is better or worse, you learn how they conceptualized the problem (maybe you were asking yourself the wrong question during the game) and how they approached solving the problem (maybe they were able to dismiss a whole class of solutions with a simple observation).

@Everyone talking about tournaments, I'm not going to them until then mostly because I can't drive yet and I don't want my parents to drive me to get last place hours away. I'll probably start going to tournaments when i can drive myself, which isn't too far away. . .

@mkkuhner In all honesty I don't want a coach since I don't have a job to afford the outrageous rates that they want.

Go to a club?

@peterjward2000, There really isn't anything near me, so clubs and tournaments are rather far away

@VeggieEater, Thanks for the suggestion. I'll consider getting Silman's Complete Endgame Course.

@trolls, get!

Does anyone have any constructive book recommendations, given my rating range?

I put some in the other thread.  Depends on where you feel you're weak, though.

To add to the ones in the other list:  if there's a player you find really inspirational, a good annotated collection of their games can be both fun and educational.  For Fisher fans there's _My 60 Memorable Games_.  There are similar books for most World Champions and other very strong players.

I have a collection of Mikhail Tal's games that's worth owning for the anecdotes alone (the hippo story is my favorite) but the variations are so long that I can't follow without a board.  I like the McDonald books I recommended in the other thread because he is generous with the diagrams.