How to be good in chess from good chess players?

i play in yahoo games , my rating seldom goes beyond 1300 my highest is 1270 , i have played near 1000 games , i want to be really good at chess , want to take my rating to 1300's or 1400's who is willing to help me ? just am not able to keep consistency while playing , i tried to look for online materials on chess online , but the codes like f4 are really hard to read and it would take nearly an hour for me to read a game , so pls give some tips and help thx