Best way to improve your chess?

In my opinion it's playing as much fide otb games ( slow time controls) as you can. I can say this confidently because I play in fide tourneys once every two months for half a year now, and after each tournament I have been able to climb atleast 150 points higher in chess mentor, tactics trainer and slow chess rating. And I think fide otb standard players are the toughest and therefore the best opponents to play in order to improve your chess. Today I played in a open rating one day otb tournament near my place , and beat a 1700 and drew against a 2000 rated player. My friend who was also playing in that tourney said that the 2000 player's rating was probably not reliable since he is atleast 45 years old, so that rating might be outdated. But I know how much pressure this 2000 guy put on me during the game. Those two games has definitely helped my overall calculating ability because today I really felt an unusual easiness while practicing the tactics trainer. In short if a 1500 player who wants to improve , played regularly against fide rated players 300+ points higher than him, he would improve significantly quicker. What are your opinions on this?

How do FIDE tournaments help? What is special in them?

jengaias wrote:

Harish73 wrote:

How do FIDE tournaments help? What is special in them?

Strong opponents.

Yes, Exactly. Fide rated tourneys are very tough and way more competitive. Nothing against online chess but online ratings are kind of inflated save for blitz.