can we really improve??

I've bought and started with Magnus Training app. It is much better than i expected..

Very structured..

And there are speed challenges which makes sharpening piece movements in your mind. I notice i was slow realizing knight routes and speeded up abit, at least speeded enough to get 3 stars from drills.

And there is this Mirage training, its wonderful, it shows two pieces and then they disappear. lets say a rook and a knight, then a square lights up, you try to remember pieces positions and you touch the piece which can go there.. it keeps going on and on for about a minute.. this fortifies blindfold skills i guess..

and i started with basics, it covers basic in different ways than usual.. shows them a little does some drills, some games, some quizes.. it just doesnt stack everything at once.. very nice design.

and magnus talks to you there are cool relaxing musics backgound.. well that is also cool.

there are tons of stuff in it, i dont think i can see them all before a few months.. because its getting harder..

first time i didnt get sleepy while doing some chess trainings. i usually fall asleep while watching chess videos, thats true lol

I hope i'll get better, thanks for the 'structured learning' idea.. it may seem easy to realize but it wasnt.. its all because youtube. I'll use my time more effectively after now.

I'd agree 100% with your point one and two. However point 3 I'm not so sure about. I believe and practice have proven to me that analysis of your games is much more effective than repeating moves of some opening.

I know they are chessable courses out there and whilst I understand you might argue they are very useful, it is not possible to cover every single line and also to remember it unless you have some genius mind. That being said, what are the best openings? Theory is always changing and adapting, you have to as well!

If one was to master their favourite opening, one must analyse the lines that aren't commonly covered and mainly review thousands of games and maintain database with new games that are coming thick and fast.

But obviously my points to #3 concern not that much average improver but aspiring player. There is of course lot more that aspiring player have to cover and much more difficult exercises to do. That is not for everyone though..

Learn the basics first: mating patterns, tactical patterns, endgame patterns and opening principles. I am currently at 1400 but I am still learning these things until I memorized all of them. When I am reviewing my chess games, I always try to identify what patterns are involved.

Now I am trying to apply all of those tactics by trying to remember what motif I can find in every turn (my turn and my opponent's turn).

knowing openings, yes, saving time and calculation. you feel confident when things go in known lines

I learned to play go, chess, the guitar and the piano, to speak English, French and Spanish and to sing. I am 20 years old. There is no talent. Every spare hour is exercise for me.

The most important talent is capacity for hard work.

Some of @IronSteam’s comments in this thread are close to the best advice you’ll find anywhere.

Chess takes time. I’m guessing you’ve been playing a few months.

I shuffled the pieces seven years before I saw a chess book. Once I started reading books, my play improved dramatically and I was soon beating all my friends. YouTube did not exist, then. The internet did not exist then. I started with books that I borrowed from the library.

One of the books that helped me then (almost 50 years ago), I’ve been reading again the past year. This time, however, I’m going through the whole book: every single game. Irving Chernev, The 1000 Best Short Games of Chess (1955). Libraries no longer have this book, and the copies you can find are usually expensive.

If you just want the games, you can download them free from Bill Wall’s website. But, that won’t give you Chernev’s witty and instructive commentary.

There are other, better, easier to find books that are similar in the sense that they are collections of short games. I recommend Carsten Hansen, Marvelous Modern Miniatures: 2020 Games in 20 Moves or Less (2020).

Yes you will plateau eventually but if you don't progress further it is simple because you give up or start pushing. I am not trying to say that all people could become GMs at the same time but within the environment chess is, people can still improve to a very high level. If I had someone to train every day for 8-10 hours, I would get most of those people above 2000 again assuming I am not going to train the whole planet, because that would drive the numbers of what is possible to achieve, down. But yes. You definitely have ability to improve and so does everyone else around you. Even Magnus knows he can improve closer to 2900 but some of these things depend on circumstances. Remember that those who don't sleep are improving, eventually driving the gaps between them much smaller.

Go I would also encourage for chessplayers to learn. It is a game that shows different philosophy and if you learn basics of it and apply it in chess, then you can improve without too much worry about winning and losing. Go helped me to rekindle love for Chess

I had a student exactly like you and eventually gave up on coaching that person. It is you who have to realise err of your thoughts and start learning.

In your mind you are looking for validation of why it can not be done and excuses so you don't have to do the hard work required.

You are not the only one but trust me. Only person who can change this is you!

I have 3 books and one of them is very close to your first mentioned one. Here is the ones i have at hand;

Those are excellent books

Then you did the most important step to perfection!

I heard about another book 'amateur's mind: turning chess misconceptions into chess mastery' writer is jeremy silman

it's said to be the simpler version of another book of his, how to reasses your chess.

I don't know if i can read them all but i'll still find the last one, its a bit expensive though. And I took a peek Yasser's book series, guy is a machine or wanted to break things into books.. to make more money idk.. clever guy

I'm using Magnus Trainer app at the moment, its quite interactive and it was cheap to be honest.. and it has a very structured teaching plan.. there are drills, games and speed challenges in between. I liked it.

I started in June 2022, was 300s now I'm 1559 rapid, I have a day job and I dont think it's impossible

The peeing in the pants seems to be the trick. Don't skip this important part of the process. Never skip leg stream day.

seems like experience talks here.. thanks for the suggestion, i'll try to follow your ways