What are the best way’s to study and improve the middlegame and endgame

I’m relatively new to chess, I always enjoyed the occasional game as a younger child but I never played it seriously until 6 months ago or so. I’ve improved pretty quickly in that time and I’m hoping to improve rapidly over the next few years and achieve a title. This is only an aspiration of mine but I’m 12 years old so I have plenty of time to get there. Currently I’m sitting in the 1500-1600 raring barrier where I find myself playing not very strong opposition but still losing. I have identified that I need to brush up on my endgames and especially middlegames (I struggle with finding tactical sequences in seemingly equal positions). If I am to achieve my goal of becoming a master I need to break down this barrier but I’m not sure how, I’m very busy with numerous other hobbies and lots of school work so I was wondering what time efficient methods of practise could help me. I’ve tried reading books but I find visualising the annotation quite hard. I currently have played in 6 tournaments, all ecf rated and some fide rated. I’m 2700 puzzles and was wondering what others thoughts in the chess.com community were?

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"I’ve improved pretty quickly in that time and I’m hoping to improve rapidly over the next few years and achieve a title." ++ OK, that is doable.

"I’m 12 years old so I have plenty of time to get there." ++ Yes.

"I need to brush up on my endgames" ++ Yes, especially rook endings as these occur most.

"I struggle with finding tactical sequences in seemingly equal positions" ++ Analyse your losses.

"I’m very busy with numerous other hobbies" ++ Do not spread yourself too thin.

"lots of school work" ++ That is important.

"what time efficient methods of practise could help me" ++ Play 15|10 and analyse each loss.

"I’ve tried reading books but I find visualising the annotation quite hard." ++ A chess book is no novel. Do not read it, but study it, preferably with two chess sets: one for the main line and one for variations.

"I’m 2700 puzzles"
++ Four puzzles are a good warm-up, but in a real game nobody tells you there is a tactic, or for which side.

Thank you, I'll take all of this into account! I do try and analyse all of my games but I'll start playing more 15/10.

The biggest reason people struggle in lower-level chess is because of blunders. They make them in almost every game.

A mistake can instantly put you in a bad position, no matter how well you played earlier: if you had great opening knowledge, great positional skills, great endgame skills, whatever; a single mistake can change everything (you lose a piece or get checkmated).

So, how do you avoid blunders? Follow this simple algorithm:

While avoiding blunders is crucial, I also share a few basic principles with my students. These principles help them figure out what to do in each part of the game - the opening, the middlegame, and the endgame. Understanding these simple principles is like having a map for your moves. I provide my students with more advanced algorithms that incorporate these fundamental principles. When you use this knowledge along with being careful about blunders, you're not just getting better at defending. You're also learning a well-rounded approach to chess. Keep in mind, chess is not just about not making mistakes; it's about making smart and planned moves to outsmart your opponent.

Thanks,I do find that there are a lot of blunders at my level but when analysing my games I realise just how simple to find they are. The main reason I’m currently within the confines of this rating barrier is due to the fact that I fail to see these. I’m certain with the right amount of practise I’ll be able to see these more easily therefore exponentially increasing my rating to new heights! I watch games of higher rated players (2000-2200) and I’m astounded at how they stick to all the basic principles and pick up on neat tactics, even at that level all you need is to keep things simple.

Hi everyone, I was just wondering if anyone else would have some useful input on the subject, I noticed that after a tournament I play much better because I’m focused, I genuinely think I could gain at least 100 if not 200 rating points just by concentrating when I play my games more. Would you agree?

Here’s a game I played earlier today which albeit short, was what I thought was a good example of me concentrating. It will be the in the following post…

It appears I have no idea how to paste a game, I’m sure I’ll figure it out at some point if you’ve seen this post recently it’ll just be my most recent post, I’ll try and put it on the forum at some point.

For end game، you need to read a good book. Solve puzzles for the middle game, study the classic games... study chess games you like but with commentary..

Don't take ideas from the engines.

That's because tactical sequences rarely exist in equal positions. Tactics flow from a SUPERIOR position. You will not find a winning move unless you are in a winning position.

There is a very common misconception that you can gain the advantage by attacking. This is wrong. You gain the advantage with MANEUVER, and you CASH IT IN by attacking. Attack is not a goal. It is a method... and not the only method... for converting one form of advantage (such as superior development) into a different and more immediately useful form (such as a mate or win of material).

For learning middle-game planning and strategy...

Read my posts on the first couple of pages of this thread, PARTICULARLY posts # 4, 7 to 10 and most of all post 12. Then play over my three sample games on those first few pages.

GM Larry Evans' method of static analysis - Chess Forums - Chess.com

Hi, was just wondering about my current rating slump and thought this would be a good place to ask as it has been full of lots of valuable input previously. In the last 3 days or so I’ve lost just over 50 rating or so, but I don’t feel like I’ve been playing too much worse, it feels a bit like I’ve just lost my edge. (In some games I have made silly mistakes or mouse slips.) I’ve looked around on the internet and have seen some things about 2 steps forward 1 step back referring to learning something new in chess and in the short term suffering a rating slump. This could apply to me as I have been learning the Italian (evan’s gambit and 2 knights defence) which in itself I’m not entirely sure about due to the fact it doesn’t really complement my play style. On that matter I would say I am still early in my chess journey so there’s plenty of time to tweak my play style accordingly. That is one possibility but I’ve put this out there so that I can see how to get OUT of this slump and hear some past experience of others that may be beneficial in my case, I have a chess tourney in less then week so would love to be up and out of it by then, really hope to hear some good responses, if you got this far, thanks for listening!

Im really at a loss, I've just played 2 games in which I was completely fine if not slightly better and have lost due to a lapse in concentration, I know I'm better then this.