Stuck at 1000

I am a mediocre player, and I shot up from rank 500, to almost 900 in less than a month. I was told that doing tactics trainers would help me, and it did. I got up to about 1000, but now I am at the point where I have done trainers for more than seven and a half hours, and I haven't made any improvment. I am a premium member, so I have full access, but what really should I be learning now from this website? I feel unprepared for most every game that I play. I appreciate your feedback.

Seven and a half hours and no improvement?!  Oh my God!

I must say that yours is a remarkably insignificant plaint.

I'm a so-so player too and what helped me out alot was setting up a chess board on a table and sort-of,,,play by yourself! Learn positioning first before looking for quick wins. Just go 4 or 5 moves into the game and then start over. It might seem foolish but if you're sincere about going forward in chess,,,,then why not?  Positioning is where the real game real game of chess begins. Also...don't study too hard or you'll get burnt out. Sort of a "brain-fog" kind of thing.   

well you should play some games too. losing tactics trainer points isn't quite as punishing as losing games, so its possible to get lazy thinking: oh its just a puzzle it doesn't matter- so yeah anyway- play some games! against people who are slightly better than you, and you'll get better quick

I have been playing online, but nearly every time I end up losing. I like to play against the online computer, but that is far too difficult. I would do what orchard_littlejoe is reccomending, but I wouldn't know what positions to reach! Should I study more into openings? If so, what openings and where should I go to learn about them? Should I read a chess book? Get a mentor? Watch videos? I just need a little bit of guidance.

I found how to reassess your chess by jeremy silman helpful. I was stuck at 1150 and now im about 1350-1400. I moved from 0-1350 in 6 months. so I hope this book works for you.

do tactics trainer, 7.5 hours isnt enough. keep at it, eventually you'll start to recognise the tactics in your own games

try not to worry too much about openings, but the best ways to learn are to play the italian game or queens gambit as white 

and 1..e5 against 1. e4 and 1..d5 against 1. d4 

try to focus more on opening principles than on actual "book moves" 

example: castle early- preferably kingside, control the center with your pawns, develop all your pieces (get them off the back rank) and connect your rooks (so they are protecting eachother) usually in this order: knights/bishops, queen, rooks- try not to move a piece (including pawns!) more than once in the opening unless your opponent forces you too (obviously),

and once all that is done you are now in the middle game! focus on basic tactics: discovered attacks, double attacks (including double checks), look for the weakness of the last move (when both you and your opponent move a piece, look at what that piece is now doing, and also at what that piece is no longer doing)

then once the queens are off the board and most of the other pieces are off the board you are in the endgame. learn how to promote a pawn with just your king, and how to checkmate with a lone queen, lone rook, and the two bishops + king, against a lone king(don't bother with knight+bishop mate yet), know to look out for stalemate so you can avoid it

and anyway that should be enough to get you started sorry i went a bit overboard xD

I don't want to contradict Elite_Spartan but I'm an 1150-1200 player and I find 'How to Reassess Your Chess' incredibly daunting.  It's still on my bookshelf.  The author himself (who is a blogger here) recommends reading his book 'The Amateur's Mind: Turning Chess Misconceptions into Chess Mastery' first.  If you want to challenge me I'll play with you and give you what pointers I can if you like.

You mean after hours of practice you didn't improve?!  Oh the humanity  lol   (Sorry guy, most of us have similar complaints but we use the word years... some of us decades ;)

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I agree with others, you need to keep playing a lot of games.  After the game, win or lose, go over it and try to pick out the biggest errors.  During the game, be sure you're looking at your opponent's last move (what does it threaten?).  Also ask what your intended move will change in the position (newly attacked squares, and squares you'll no longer influence).

In the opening make only a few pawn moves, your goal is to get all your pieces (pieces are non-pawns in chess lingo) out as fast as possible (1 move each preferably) and to influence the center.  The king wants to be castled.

You already know about basic tactics it seems.  Do you know how to checkmate with a king and queen vs a lone king?  How about with king and rook vs a lone king?  If so, you know all you need to know for right now, and the best thing you can do is play games.

Thanks b3nnyhaha! That helped, do you have any ideas of where I could learn things like that into more detail? Or would you reccomend independant study?

Well, there goes my practice theory!

wafflle stole my joke.

Yes, but it was the correct joke to make.  Everyone should have made it

While doing chess tactics problem is great at improving your chess, you now need to learn new things on chess, study some endgames and some middle games. Regarding opening just familiarize yourself with general opening principles. I suggest you buy Winning Chess Strategy and Winning Chess Endgame by Seirawan.. Another thing is lessen your blitz, don't play bullet(save playing this type of chess when you are already good) and play more longer games..

lol...yeah, sure glad I never wasted 7 1/2 hours of my time on the game. 

lol

A nice offer, but it looks like you would need to be taking an awful lot of naps.