1. Read Silmans Reasses Your Chess book
2. Solve puzzles here chesstempo.com 15-30 min everyday
3. Play slow games in live chess example 30min or more
4. Analyze your games , find atleast 1 mistake , find out why you did ( example : time pressure , too materialistic ) ? and search for a way to not do it again
5. Go over master games. You either zip though them as much as you can do per day or you play the first 10 moves of the game then try to guess the next move
I'm 24 and started to play chess seriously about 6 months ago. I joined a chess club and have now played my first two rated games. I'm planning on playing in my first tournment in the middle of August.
What I'm looking for is an effective plan of study. I obviously don't have a rating, but let's say it's something like 1300. Thus far, I have 3 books. Logical Chess, Move by Move by Irving Chernev, and Silman's Complete Engame Manual and How to Reassess Your Chess (4th ed) by Jeremy Silman. I really got a lot out of the first 4 sections of the endgame book. In fact, I drew my first rated game because I traded from behind into a situation that I knew was drawn (bishop and wrong colored rook pawn). I've started How to Reassess Your Chess, and while I'm getting something out of it, I think it might be a bit over my head. (Silman says 1400-2100.)
I guess I have two main questions.
1. Besides play a lot, does anyone have a suggestion on how to study effectively? Should I just continue through Silman's Reasses Your Chess book? Solve lots of tactical puzzles?
2. I always read not to study the opening, but for tournaments and serious play, I'd like to have a game plan as White and decent responses to common openings as Black. Any suggestions here? At the say under 1400 level, do I need to memorize deep into variations? At the moment, I'll play the Ruy Lopez, exchange the bishop and knight, then see what happens, or something similar.