Can you improve while not playing a lot?

I have always had a lot of anxiety when it comes to playing rated games, so I spend most of my time studying chess instead because it's calming and how I best enjoy chess. Most days I will be watching chess videos, reading books, solving puzzles, etc without playing games. This has shown to not be as big of an issue as I went up over 500 elo this year. I just need to know if I need to play like 5 or so rapid games a day to improve, which is what I've heard from some people.

Why do you even want to improve if you don't like playing?

play unrated games

Exactly.

Sounds like a fairly good strategy! Although I would definitely recommend playing more games, but don't let that distract you from improving and studying like you already are. And I would not care so much about your rating as that can cause tilting. I'm pretty much the exact opposite of you in the way I play chess, I play thousands of games per month and I haven't studied or watched many chess videos in the past several months.

Q: @Greckoboi Where does your anxiety come from? Note that if your anxiety comes from rating, you can hide it (A tip I learned from the great IM Jeremy Silman, who just recently passed away)

I'm pretty sure he likes playing, just not many rated games at once.

Yeah you can improve but you still have to play sometimes. Like play 1 or 2 rapid games a day and review them. Also I know other people have said this but play unrated games. I also have this problem and if I feel like I’m not in the right mindset to play I just learn and don’t play.

Also, you must play games in order to analyse them. Since you have a Diamond membership, that shouldn't be hard. Maybe look at your insights page or try Aimchess.

If you watch videos and study etc, i guess you need to try them out. Just play 5 games in 2-3 days atleast

I have played similar amount of rapid as you. I definitely improved (~800 in a year), it's just how much and how fast.

Every 100 elo is harder than the previous 100, maybe at some point I have to play more.

It's fascinating. I like learning about it a lot more than playing is all. I like learning about great games of the past in specific.

It's mostly just losing makes me feel awful and sours my mood. I guess that's why I avoid playing games a lot.

Maybe try using the same chrome extension (if you use chrome lol) that GothamChess uses to hide the player and ratings until the game is over.

Edit: I think you can find that in the settings actually

yeah it should say "hide player ratings"

The best way to improve is by playing, its like anything, expertise comes with training,

p.s. Btw, elo dont mater as long as you have fun , so stop worrying

I used to have anxiety playing rated too but then I started playing unrated and doing lots of puzzles and my friend @GM-Dimitrios-M told me to start playing more rated then I skyrocketed from 238 to 420 Elo (nice number lol)

I mean this sincerely: You should stop playing chess and think about becoming a Chess Problemist or Composer instead. There's a whole chess world out there for people who like studying and learning about the beauty of chess without all the cutthroat brutality of winning at all costs. This chess.com article can get you started on some cool composed problems, and there's lots of books full of them!

White to play and mate in 4.

That's an image not a puzzle