Fastest way to improve your chess

If you are an average club player, what is the fastest way to improve your chess? Studying tactics books? Masses of blitz chess? What?

Thanks,

Jon

Studying your own games is the fastest and only way.

Absolutely agree with miriskra. A bit more detail =>

1. Take a game you lost.

2. Get a stronger player to identify the 3 biggest non-tactical (blunder) mistakes you are making. These could be time-management, strategic or just plain faulty thinking/thought-process related.

( Don't get me wrong when I say don't count tactical blunders, you NEED to practice a ton of tactics to learn to catch those blunders better plus everyone gets better at tactics at their own pace ... this approach addresses the other DANGEROUS bad habits you may have.)

3. Figure out the alternative moves. Hopefully the stronger player will do a good job convincing you.

4. Make a record of these, you'll need to review it later to confirm that you assimilated it.

5. Repeat 1-4.

6. Ever so often, review your big-3 mistakes and assure yourself that you're not going to do these again.

If you do this systematically, you'll notice that the quality (for lack of a better word) of your mistakes will change.  Fewer bad habits and your problem-spots will start to get more subtle and nuanced => You'll start to play like a stronger player.

I managed to get a lot out of this approach and worked really well with a 5-year old I was teaching last year.  3 months of this "conditioning" and she was making a 1/2/3rd position in every tournament she competed in.