I've been playing for 30 years. My finger tips are hard as a rock and all rough (gotta be careful on my chick's panty hose!). Yesterday, I practiced/played hard for 6 hours, maybe more and my fingers are tender today. However, I wrote/perfected some new stuff that is dynamite!

So, sounds like you've been putting some time in. I hope your guitar is set up well and not slowing your progress.

Chords - Try working on the simple chords first, two finger chords, then move to 3 note, or finger, chords, but only ones that use adjacent frets. Some of the Major and Minor Triads will work. Stay down in the first 3 frets. Example - E, D, Am7, etc. You can spot them in your beginners chord book. Even though you are only using 2 or 3 fingers, some strings can be played open, adding to the fullness of the chord, the D string on a D chord, the A on the Am7, etc..

Pick 3 or maybe 4 chords to work on at a time (like E, D, G). When you get to the point where you can accurately place your fingers on a chord, and transition to other chords quickly, you can start working on the more "stretchy" forms that require notes spanning several frets. You will also need to learn to "barre" strings (pronounced "bar"), where you place a finger flat on the fretboard, fretting several strings at one time. You will see this used across ALL the chord types (Major, Minor & Dominant), and is the basis for lots of rock, punk, metal.

Last but not least, try using different fingers for the same chord. Just because a book says to do it one way doesn't mean you have to.