Learning Chess at 51 Years Old

Let me start by admitting that I feel a little old to start learing chess

I'm going to tackle learning chess as at 51 years old. I started my Chess journey a year and a half ago (like so many other people) after watching "Queen's Gambit." I'd played a few games in my youth (less than 50), but stories of the chess geniuses had always caught my imagination, and watching Beth Harmon got me to finally sign up for chess.com and start playing. (Don't try to convince me Beth Harmon isn't a real person.)

How good do I want to be? Good enough to beat all the young whippersnappers.

I've played almost 800 games without much improvement, but I want to change that. I'm ready to get serious.  I know I don't need be exceptionally good to play chess, or to enjoy playing, but I want to be good. How good? As good as I can be. Good enough to surprise people. Good enough to surprise myself. I imagine a conversation years in the future. "When did you start playing?" "At 51."  "Wow! I wouldn't have guessed!"
 

Surprised?

Surprise is a subjective standard, and a little vain. But it's a way to challenge myself. So I am making this a journey about learning. I'm going to struggle. Then I'm going to question why I am struggling, and look for help to get better.  

Learning to Learn

I've done some studying about how people learn. And a good first step to learning or teaching a new skill is to break a skill down to smaller skills (task analysis), next I'll need to determine which skills need to be learned before others (pre-requisites), then set achievable standards, test for mastery, and later retest for retention. So I'm going to get going on a task analysis for chess (at my level), then see what I can learn about learning, and share it.

*Just for fun*

I was looking at games similar to a position I had played, and came across this game. I was clicking through it and was surprised at move 17 bxe6, and then delighted at the result. 

Torbjorn Ringdal Hansen (2473) vs Nicolaj Zadruzny (2251)