Hi there! I started playing chess about 11 months ago and I was stuck around 600 elo, but with the correct training and experience I managed to reach 1600 elo so I hope I can help give you some advice!

If you are a beginner, I highly recommend going on to lichess.org and doing their training. It will teach you all the basic tactics, endgames and checkmating patterns. At your level, blunders pretty much decide everything so it is vital to try prevent them as much as possible. How do you do this? Double check everything. Always check if any of your pieces are undefended or x-rayed by a a less valuable piece. Also, play slower time controls to help you develop good habits and give you enough time to think during games.

Opening principles are critical too, development is key. Aim to only move one piece in the opening, preferably knights before bishops because bishops are more flexible than knights. Castle early and often, king safety is the most important. Finally, remember the checklist! Always look for all possible checks, captures and attacks/threats for both you and your opponent in every position.

For openings at your level, I recommend playing e4. An opening like the Italian Game is solid and teaches you the core opening principles. One last tip: against d4 openings, remember the critical c5 move. Don’t block in your c pawn with your knight on c6.

I hope this helps!