What Things Helped You Move From 1200 to 1500 Range?

We all start with a default rating of 1200.  

Between 1200 and 1500, what things helped you win and move up to about 1500?

EDIT:  I'm talking standard time controls, but if you want to include blitz that's fine too - just say it's blitz, though, so I know what you're talking about.

I think... that understanding of chess  principles, and a thought process will probably move someone from XXX to 1XXX.

meaning.

I don't think the list of skills changes much in "club" level chess playing.

as to what that list IS specifically.  people have laid out both huge and little lists.   but it is mostly the easier aspects of chess---

• observing, avoiding, and playing tactics
• being aware of complications, and staying out of them is wise
• Keeping your peices active and safe
• Keeping your king safe; yet active in the endgame
• basic endgame ideas (though in the club level perhaps you don't have to obsess about the endgame to be a club player)
• being able to adapt to your opponents ideas

there's a list....

If you were to ask what, I think made the most difference.... Tactics!  tactics,tactics and more tactics.  you need to do them so much so often they are easy peezy.  when a set of reasonable tactics looks very easy,  you start seeing them in the game.  they stand out to you BEFORE your into the winning fork or the unstoppable discovered check.  you need to practice them, even if you can solve them.  get to the point where you can solve them faster...

at that point, your moving up.  I'm reminding myself that I've slacked off lately.,.. perhaps my library of tactics is dusty and thats why I'm stuck here at 1500....

Reading "The Inner Game of Chess" by Andrew Soltis!

Tactics.

Playing slow games.

Tactics.

Understanding opening principals.

Tactics.

Piece activity/coordination/King safety.

(did I mention Tactics?)

Once you reach 1500 you begin to understand a little more about how to properly develop a plan and execute it (although you oftentimes misjudge the needs of the position, which is preventing you from reaching 1800+).

Tactics...tactics...Tactics...

Opening Principles.

Double checking your moves.

At 1200? The book assumes the reader has a lot of basic knowledge already. In my mind this book is better to wait until 1800 or even 2000.

Basic knowledge plus work on tactics.

Basic knoweldge can mean a lot of things... so for example I mean

Opening
Know the principals and know the first few moves of the major openings you play by heart

Strategy
Able to identify  backward, doubled, and isolated pawns. Know the basics of how to mobalize each piece e.g. knights on outpost, bishops on long diagonal and not blocked by their own pawns, Rooks on open files,

Tactics
Would be able to give examples of thematic patterns like fork, pin, discovered attack, skewer, and removing the defender.

Endgame
Can preform basic mates. Knows what a pawn majority and why it's important. Knows the king should be active.

---

After each game reference your opening with a database. Not to memorize lots of moves, but to see what's usually played (do this often and you'll remember naturally without having to work to memorize).

After each game identify your biggest mistake. It could be a tactic, it could be a bad idea you had, it could even bad poor time management. Similarly to the opening work, if you do this often enough, you become very aware of your most common errors (and naturally will work to fix them if you're interested in improving).

Its very importhan for you , to find out what (do?) you like. You will improve much better by doing things you like.

When i was ~ 1200 i read a book-two , i set up board and played at least few dozens classical master games. 

And you know what?

I was completely lost. None of the books, classical games , or my experience with games made me any better. I wanted to play chess and to improve but just did not happen. I was just bad at chess. All that information i could not memorize it, so much things and when you play a game some crazy position appear and you are alone again.  Maybe i was too distracted by other things like video games and basketball and school.

Later on when i picked the game few years back - i watched a lot of yoututbe videos, master streams blitz with comentary and found out i learn a lot of just observing visually, not by reading, it was just boring. So that improved me a lot - and playing quick games you need that experience. Tactics is #1 thing for fast improvment too.

The lessons (and training exercises) in the "Chessmaster" PC game helped me move from 1200 to about 1700.

From 1700 to 2100, it's been mainly reading the occasional book ("My System" probably helped me improve the most), playing a lot, and, mostly importantly: reviewing every game.

At 2100+, though, the tactical and positional battles over the board get harder (struggling over smaller and smaller advantages), and I'm finding that opening study has started to become more important. So I'd say 2100+: time to start really fine-tuning your theory!

If you (can?) find someone higher rated than you in your area , who could be your buddy, and to answer your questions - that's the best thing that could happen.

Or read 10 topics on forum here by searching with words how to improve.