play less games, really analyze your losses. This is THE #1 thing i wish i took more seriously. Chess takes so much dedication, get a daily journal to keep ideas written.
ex. 30 mins puzzles... 30mins rapid + analysis ... 30mins opening studies (QGD, French)
rinse and repeat this in journal form. Good luck my brother and never stop trying to get better!
"I wouldn't play daily either. You're allowed to use the analysis board and an opening book during the game. That's cheating in my opinion and it creates all sorts of bad habbits
Tactics are the most important thing to focus on. That alongside strategy and endgame fundamentals. This site has a study guide that has all of the resources you could possibly need"
I joined Chess.com 4 months ago. In my 4 months here I've played 1,099 Rapid games (first 10, then 30 & then I switched to 15-10). I've only played 18 Daily games, with 32 Daily Tournament games in progress now. I received an invite from a Chess.com friend and entered 2 Daily Tournaments a couple days ago. I have the 3rd lowest rating in the Tournament of the players in my current group. I find the Daily Tournaments useful and am using the Opening Book (a lot) at the start of the games and Explorer Chess Board (a little). The Tournament started, and I instantly had 32 games to play and 24 hours to move in each one. I saw a number of different openings I don't know how to play against, other than my usual opening tactics. I like that I am repeatedly looking at the Book Openings & player statistics for about the first 5-12 moves in each game (after that it's pointless), gaining insights & looking at the statistics of what most players play in that situation. It makes me think about the differences in the top 2-3 options and calculate why different players play them. Seeing how the opening progresses, and on the left side of the screen having a complete in depth explanation of each opening, pros, cons, etc.
I found that through intuition & experience, I play many of these different opening moves on my own without knowing their names or move order. I'm starting to put names to the different opening strategies and learning some better move progressions than what I play on my own. But, the Tournaments at first were kind of like trying to drink from a fire hose. Each opponent I'm playing twice, as black and white at the same time. I saw some higher rated opponents playing Book Opening conditional pre-moves. I decided to take some of the games out of the Book Openings, figuring that the higher rated players are better at Opening Book play than I am. Throw a wrench into the game.
I'm having fun and after thousands of games played over the years, as a casual player, am finally starting to learn a little about specific openings. I would say it is helpful. I forget this information almost as fast as I read it, but I repeatedly go back and re-read it and it is slowly starting to stick. It is not cheating, as it is within the rules and we all have the same advantage. I understand you're referring to it as cheating based on your opinion and not an actual rules violation.
I am finding it helpful to have the time to research and calculate, it's challenging and fun to play against higher rated players and try to calculate what they are doing and how to beat them. It is illegal to use any analysis during a Daily game, you can only use the Explorer Chess Board to work out different moves on your own.
I agree 15-10 is the Rapid sweet spot for playing/learning. I think Daily Tournament play is helpful at my level. If I was just playing 1 or 2 Daily games, it would not be anywhere near as helpful in reinforcing learning the various openings. The link below is useful too. Thank you for the study guide link!
https://www.chess.com/article/view/chess-tactics