How much can a 60 year old expect to improve?

I just had to quote the above for it's awesomeness!  Rock on DENVERHIGH!!!!

60 is the new 40, so the sky is the limit for him!

I'm such a newb. I've only just learned chess a mere 51 years ago.

I am 68. By dint of three years hard work I improved from about 1800 strength to a peak of (the ECF equivalent of) 2150 , at the age of 30, in 1985. Then I stopped studying and my rating gradually fell. I last made a serious effort to improve at the age of 45. I regained some of the lost ability, but got stuck in the low 2000s. Then I stopped studying, did not play at all for a few years, but started to play for fun about 15 years ago when I moved to the Netherlands. With the exception of two years lost to the COVID lock-downs I have played each year about 20 competitive games of classical chess at slow time limits. But I still did not study chess apart from looking at an occasional GM game from the World Championship cycle or the big tournaments. For the last few years my OTB rating oscillated between 1970 and 2020.

Last year it dropped to a local low of 1941 after a very stupid loss to an improving junior at my club, conceding draws to two very weak club members, and failing to cash in winning positions in a local tournament and inter-club matches

I have forgotten most of the detailed opening theory that I used to know (it was in any case badly out of date) and a lot of clever endgame trickery. I have also found it increasingly difficult to visualize the positions in variations more than three or four moves deep. My sens of danger is not so sharp as it used to be either. But what I have lost most is quick sight of the board. It takes me ages now to see what would have been obvious in seconds 40 years ago. Proof is in my miserable standard of 2+1 bullet (currently stuck around 1300). I fall into opening traps, miss mates, hang pieces, overlook easy wins, as well as often losing on time after achieving crushing positions.

I have just started to work at the game again. Not too intensely. Only for one or two hours a day. But that should be enough to re-develop quick sight of the board and stop making elementary blunders, i.e. the first objective. Of course I'll have to stop playing bullet for fun, as it develops the bad habit of playing superficially which is fatal at slower time limits.

I always had the ambition of reaching 2200 level ... the level of a National Master in many countries. But first I have to get back to 2100+ and before that back to 2000+. But if I ever do get to 2200 then 2300 and a FIDE Master title would become a realistic goal. [I laugh at all those beginner questions like "How long will it take me to become a GM - poor deluded souls, thinking that there is some known process that reliably turns out GMs at the end ... like training to become a doctor].

Maybe my ambitions are possible and maybe they aren't. 'Maybe I'll never get out of the 1900s and will spend the rest of my chess career watching my rating slowly decline as old age slows down my brain and saps my stamina.

Or maybe not.

At least, based on family history, I have at last ten years left in which to try, and maybe as many as 22 years or more, if I inherited the same genes as some of my great-aunts.

Watch this space.

Keep us posted, @BeyondHypermodern

I’m a couple of years behind you. My peak rating of 1982 was in my early 50s. The last time I finished first in a weekend Swiss, I was 63. That was a couple of months ago. My current USCF is just under 1900.

Don’t know if I can get over 2000 as I’m feeling the effects of age. But if I can get back over 1900, …

Good luck with all this. I am 83, and enjoy the game.

Two things are needed to become good at something.

1. Talent

2. Effort

Effort will offset lack of talent quite a bit.

Without effort, talent will come to very little.

But Chess still has benefits to offer regardless of achievment.

It is good brain exercise, can provide pleasure for a hobby for those who like it, and allows a measure of healthy social contacts and friendship.

The only downside is that it can become a bit of an obsession, and cause neglect of important duties and relationships.

At your level, cheating does not exist.

HM . . . . .

This is an old post . .I used to be DENVERHIGH then. . . but when my wife passed away I changed my handle to my real name. . . . It seems that time is fleeting. we don't have a life (chess) clock. ..

In December i will be 86 I am still playing not thinking of de@th because of life longevity has changed. Many of my bowling and chess friends have died and I am still hanging on. . .

My rating has dropped plenty and dropping without effort. I used to play blindfold chess regularly when I was 21. I also bowled against pros then. That has dropped also. . . .

Age takes it's toll but I will live until 102. That's when I will run out of money . . .

I still read chess books. Still have a dozen chess set but I'm giving them away slowly..

Rich