HOW TO IMPROVE

“Every chess player's favorite topic is how to improve.  Want to play chess better? Of course you do! Every chess player's favorite topic is how to improve. It's hard to know where to go after learning the basics. Motivation is an important factor and just asking the question -- 'How can I improve?' -- is a first step.”  

READ & STUDY & LEARN & PLAY & ANALAYZE & don’t forget to play through the games of the greats.

Reference:  Study Plans for Improvement  & Reference:  Books 

TRAINING:

Chess E Book - http://www.chessebook.com/index.php

MyChess - http://www.mychess.com/

Video - http://www.chessvideos.tv/

GAME DATA BASE SITES:

ChessGames - http://www.chessgames.com/index.html

365Games - http://365chess.com/

NIC (quality games) - http://www.newinchess.com/NICBase/Default.aspx?PageID=400

GameKnot (1600+ patzers play) - http://gameknot.com/chess-games-database.pl 

Chess Data Base - http://www.chess-database.com/DBQuery/dbquery.html

ANALYZE:

Chess Lab - http://www.chesslab.com/PositionSearch.html

TACTICS TACTICS TACTICS

Chess Tactics Server - http://chess.emrald.net/

Chess Tempo (tactics) - http://chesstempo.com/chess-tactics.html

Predator at the Chessboard - http://www.chesstactics.org/

OPENINGS:

The Most Common Chess Openings - http://chess.about.com/od/openings/tp/TopOpenings.htm

General - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_opening

Theory - http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Opening_theory_in_chess

How to Learn an Opening - http://www.chessville.com/instruction/instr_open_how_to_learn_openings.htm

PROBLEMS & PUZZLES:

Find the move - http://www.enpassant.dk/chess/problems/problemsuk.htm

Chess Problems - http://www.chessproblems.com/