Chords aren't difficult? . . . that depends on what kind of chords we're talking about here. If we're talking about the regular chords, major, minor, etc, then no, they're not difficult. But when you get into the more obscure chords, jazz chords, add9s, and suspendeds, then we're talking about some serious hand tweaking.

After a year of playing you should definitely be able to play all of the major and minor chords open and barred with no problems.