Possibly of interest:
"... the NM title is an honor that only one percent of USCF members attain. ..." - IM John Donaldson (2015)
http://www.jeremysilman.com/shop/pc/Reaching-the-Top-77p3905.htm
What It Takes to Become a Chess Master by Andrew Soltis
"... going from good at tactics to great at tactics ... doesn't translate into much greater strength. ... You need a relatively good memory to reach average strength. But a much better memory isn't going to make you a master. ... there's a powerful law of diminishing returns in chess calculation, ... Your rating may have been steadily rising when suddenly it stops. ... One explanation for the wall is that most players got to where they are by learning how to not lose. ... Mastering chess ... requires a new set of skills and traits. ... Many of these attributes are kinds of know-how, such as understanding when to change the pawn structure or what a positionally won game looks like and how to deal with it. Some are habits, like always looking for targets. Others are refined senses, like recognizing a critical middlegame moment or feeling when time is on your side and when it isn't. ..." - GM Andrew Soltis (2012)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708093409/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review857.pdf
100 Chess Master Trade Secrets by Andrew Soltis
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708094523/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review916.pdf
http://dev.jeremysilman.com/shop/pc/100-Master-Trade-Secrets-77p3835.htm
Reaching the Top?! by Peter Kurzdorfer
"... On the one hand, your play needs to be purposeful much of the time; the ability to navigate through many different types of positions needs to be yours; your ability to calculate variations and find candidate moves needs to be present in at least an embryonic stage. On the other hand, it will be heart-warming and perhaps inspiring to realize that you do not need to give up blunders or misconceptions or a poor memory or sloppy calculating habits; that you do not need to know all the latest opening variations, or even know what they are called. You do not have to memorize hundreds of endgame positions or instantly recognize the proper procedure in a variety of pawn structures.
[To play at a master level consistently] is not an easy task, to be sure ..., but it is a possible one. ..." - NM Peter Kurzdorfer (2015)
http://www.thechessmind.net/blog/2015/11/16/book-notice-kurzdorfers-reaching-the-top.html
http://www.jeremysilman.com/shop/pc/Reaching-the-Top-77p3905.htm
Can you become really a master through exercise?
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Lot of intelligent people that have studied chess for years and can't break 1800 or even less.
How hard, how frequently, and how efficiently do they study, though? That's probably where the answer lies.
The amateur chess players I know spend a few hours or less on chess per day. Many don't do it daily. They may read a book here and there, maybe take notes, occasionally enter tournaments.
The titled players that I know all spend, generally, four hours a day or more on it, daily. One of them told me he spends around 10 hours a day on chess, extensive studying (he's a Grandmaster). For him, chess is a full-time job. He wakes up, chess all day long. Goes to sleep. Wakes up the next day, chess all day long. Goes to sleep. Rinse and repeat. Breaks only on weekends.
Most people don't have that kind of devotion (nor want it)—but that's the kind of obsession that's probably needed for most players to reach those crazy-high levels.