How do I create a balance between chess study and play?

According to ICS, you shouldn’t allocate more than 25% of your chess-time to playing games and you shouldn’t play any time control less than 10-25 minutes when you do play a game, if you want to maximize your progress. I think the general recommendation from most instructors/high-level players would be to spend the majority of your time studying/hammering exercises (e.g., books and tactics puzzles) and a small amount of your time playing high-quality games (e.g., hard two hour games or a bunch of 25 min games).

Thanks, great advice.

Unless you are going professional and plan to make money from chess whats the point of studying more than playing? Unless you enjoy doing puzzles and reading books more than playing , well then of cause, do what gives you most joy.

Some people are interested in improving/gaining playing strength (like myself), others just play for fun; it sounds like the OP is asking what the best study/play split is for optimal improvement, which guided my answer.

Let's just say that I am serious about chess.

xDD

Keep doing what you love but I'm impressed that you're 1800.

ICS = International Chess School. ICS is a program for achieving an ELO of 2000 and above.

"... the kind of thinking it takes to plan, evaluate, play long endgames, and find deep combinations is just not possible in quick chess. … for serious improvement ... consistently play many slow games to practice good thinking habits. ... there is a strong case for at least augmenting internet play with some OTB play, whether in a club or, better yet, a tournament. ... I would guess that players who have never played OTB usually gain 50-100 points of playing strength just from competing in their first long weekend tournament, assuming they play five or more rounds of very slow chess. ... Don't have two day? Try a one-day quad (a round-robin among four similarly rated players). … about 100 slow games a year is a reasonable foundation for ongoing improvement. ... Can't make 100? Then try for 60. If you only play three or fewer tournaments a year and do not play slow chess regularly at a club (or on-line, where G/90 and slower play is relatively rare), then do not be surprised that you are not really improving. ..." - NM Dan Heisman (2002)

https://web.archive.org/web/20140627052239/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman16.pdf

The answer is:

Study as much as you can but without turning the whole process into a chore for yourself.  That ratio is entirely up to you to figure out, but if you study too much, for too long, you'll burn out on chess and stop playing for a significant chunk of time...wasting your efforts entirely.

I play 4-6 games per week with 15+15 timecontrol on Lichess. Every three week a 2100 OTB player will go through 4-5 of the games with me through Skype. We will NOT analyze games where me or the opponent drops a piece on move 10, but mainly when there is a topic like: The bishop became a monster, lost rook endgame, the opening went so bad, the power of the open C file and etc. Out of all things I study in books, courses, videoes and etc I would say this helps me the most. I would mainly say that pawnplay and understanding of good and bad pieces helps most. Not too focused about missed tactics. He cost around 12 dollars for 2 hours.

Study with an experienced coach/trainer. The experience will quickly teach you how to self-study. 

I never study.  I either win or learn  .

When learning a musical instrument one is advised to play the instrument for a short time every day and to practice parts of the piece that are more difficult to master. Music theory is usually planned in as part of that time and equally bite sized and targeted on concepts that require repetition to conceptualise.

I would be a better player if I followed that advice. I recently stumbled across John Bartholomew’s YouTube/Chess.com Chess Fundamentals video series. I knew what Chess coordination is and how to achieve it but The Chess Coordination video helped me realise I need to really focus on it in the course of the game. I Made immediate progress from that video.

In later vides he talks about putting the queen’s pawn in front of the queens knight in the opening and also looking out for the opponent’s undefended pieces and targeting them. What he says makes sense but I found it harder to implement the ideas into my own games without weakening my own position.

I found my chess play which is not great anyway was weaker after studying the videos. I might have been cross with myself had I also not also been reading a book about psychology. It had a section discussing how new learning disrupts old learning. I can relate to this when trying to unlearn poor technique at the piano.

I also read Brain Rules by John Medina. The book discusses how the brain learns and how to best maximise learning.

For me it is not just about what I learn but also understanding how I learn - which is important because learning is not easy for me.

For people who struggle with learning, I determined that the best approach was to work with a good chess coach/instructor. Keep working with one until you become confident that you can improve on your own.

While working with a coach, the student quickly realizes whether one has what it takes to become stronger in chess, such as the ability for hard work and the attitude to overcome defeats in tournaments. Should one quit early, he/she saves all the money, time and resources on books, videos, interactive sites, databases, engines, and miscellaneous fees and memberships.

I agree that private professional tuition in any field is the best course to successful learning. For the OP who stated they are serious about chess it is an excellent idea.

For someone who has a more casual goal in mind the expense of tutoring (and the difficulty in finding a professional tutor) may out way the end goal especially when YouTube videos are free and a couple of books is still less than 3 or 4 lessons.

For some self tutoring is the only option due to expense or availability.

When I recommend to work with a coach, I mean to have at least one full session. That gives a student the opportunity to be assessed, to be given feedback on the most efficient way to improve using drills, and to experience how to conduct over-the-board analysis of one’s win and one’s loss.

 

If the student can afford continuous one-on-one lessons/training, good for him/her. If not, then at least the student is on the right track instead of aimlessly reading every ebook and watching every YouTube video. 

Should a player prove to have a talent for the game, and the player (or the guardians) would attempt to go professional, only then would continuous and serious training with a dedicated chess coach (or coaches) be necessary.