Best Study plan

I've always thought that the biggest asset to improving isn't necessarily just a structured plan, but more so the diligence, and desire that you have right now to improve. I'm sure there are chess sources out there, whether it be books, online, videos or otherwise that aren't very educational according to your level, but I bet there is still something to be learned from most of them. Keep at it, keep absorbing things, and keep the fire going. I'm sure opinions differ, but in my opinion, don't spend time designing a structured plan, you could be spending that time learning and picking up new things, just from the desire to be better and for the love of chess. The fire to improve and to learn new things comes and goes for a lot of us chess diehards, and it's best to make use of it while it's there 

I used to play the Torre as a back-up weapon alongside the Queen's Gambit, but eventually I grew into mainline 1.d4 openings as I became stronger. I liked playing through Fischer's game as a child, but I always shied away from the Najdorf, although I started playing the King's Indian. After I decided to the play the Najdorf as an adult, I soon became a National Master in a little over three months. Go figure. It's nice to have a strategically consistent opening repertoire, but I usually encourage my students not to limit their potential with a narrow range of systems (especially if they have higher ambitions). I've often found that once I start playing the opening I really want to play despite worries of theoretical burden, I am nearly always pleasantly surprised.

"... the Semi-Slav ... leads to some of the most complicated positions in any opening and has been heavily analysed to move 20 and beyond. ..." - GM Neil McDonald (2001)

"If you want to improve in classical ( slow ) chess you have to work on all 3 phases of the game . ..." - NM Reb (August 30, 2017)

"... We have, however, a clear motivation here for focusing (at least some) of our chess energy on the endgame:

> Our opponents will typically have a clear weakness in this area.

> We want to fortify our game with a strong endgame foundation; otherwise we will be throwing away many good positions (and points!).

..." - some of what IM Jonathan Hawkins wrote in his book, Amateur to IM

"... Jeremy Silman's How to Reassess Your Chess is an example of a good book which explains many important ideas in clear terms. ..." - GM John Nunn (2006)

http://www.chessgames.com/player/robert_james_fischer.html

I do hope you realize I was joking...

(Really, I thought the fake Fischer quote would be a dead give-away, but now I am quoted out of context. Touché.)

It's very hard to say how good you can be, but you're certainly not too old to make it to the top 100, that's for sure. There are examples of GMs who started playing when they were in their early 20s, and others who stood at modest E2000-E2100 around that age, and still developed to become GMs in their late 20s and early 30s.

A note of caution, however: To be become really good requires tremendous amounts of hard work, and there's no guarantee that you will succeed (the stronger you get, the harder it will be to improve). Also, chess is not a lucrative profession, as a rule. Unless you're in the absolute world elite (top 10 to 15 in the world), even players in the top 100 in the world may struggle to put money aside for their old age.

Sorry, did not realize that you thought of the quote thing as a dead give-away.

LOL I thought the parody was brilliant. 

Send IM Silman, IM Watson, NM Reb, IM Hawkins along and point them towards my study plan!  It will take the NM to IM level and the IM to GM level. Send GM MacDonald along as well, it will take him from a 2500 rated GM to super GM level.  Nunn is beyond hope.

I notice that you're following your own advice with great success. Shame you missed out so narrowly on the Candidates this time. Oh well, another chance will come along in a couple of years' time.

Ahhh the physician heal yourself argument, how interesting! YES it was tragic, never the less the only way is up!  follow my study plan and you will become famous.

oh my God

I have a new study plan based on the subconscious mind and harnessing its power.  Who wants to hear it?

No one wants to know how to unleash the power of the subconscious mind, fine, I will become awesome myself and then you will all be asking me, how you become so awesome at chess, and I will stay silent!

Alright Robbie.  What is your new study plan?

ha! now you want to know because you too want to become awesome. 

Ok it has to do with the way we learn and store information.  Ask yourself this, how are Gm's able to calculate at the speed of light? That's is correct they do not, they are simply accessing the depths of their subconscious minds the patterns and experiences that they have previously assimilated.  Remember what it was like when we started to learn to drive? it was a conscious effort, now we can do it without thinking  that is the subconscious mind. Unconvinced? let me reiterate what Grandmaster Andrew Soltis wrote in his book, 'Studying chess made easy', page 12., heading, Its often subliminal.

This sounds strange, but the fact is you learn a lot about chess without being aware of it.

Just flipping through the pages of a magazine and looking at diagrams, or analysing board positions with a board and pieces, is beneficial.   If you were lucky enough to have been born with the ability to focus attention, this kind of casual learning can be nearly as good as more intensive study!

He then goes on to cite the example of Capablanca who flunked out of college for a year and just watched and played chess and when he entered tournaments he was awesome.

So what does this mean?  Easy one or two move tactics. Lots of them, to the point where your conscious mind becomes overloaded and switches itself off leaving the subconscious open to assimilate the patterns and ideas.  No more than thirty seconds per puzzle, you don't know the answer, look at the solution, visualise it in your mind and it will enter the subconscious until you need it.  This is how Spassky practiced, lots of repetition, easy tactics.  Its no coincidence that Karpov himself was king of the two-move tactic.

Playing rapidly through master games, lots of them, again to the point of saturation where your conscious mind switches itself off and you will be free to absorb all that goodness into your subconscious realm for use later.

Just casually flicking through publications with lots of diagrams in a kind of self induced subliminal messaging.  Even Carslen uses this technique, infact he gets someone to hold up images of the positions and he tells them from what game the position arose. 

Sounds like quackery I know because we feel we should be flagellating ourselves with jaggy nettles in order to improve, reading dry endgame manuals and the like but there seems to be method in the madness.

I saw this approach of playing through pro games recommended a lot in Go.

In Pump Up Your Chess, they describe the woodpecker method of practicing tactics, which Tikkannen used to improve. This amounts to building up to working a large number of problems in one sitting after several periods of repetition.

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708085005/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review918.pdf