Strange, the more I analyze and the less I play, the stronger I feel at chess.

I had a revelation tonight. I feel that the less I play, the stronger I feel. I've been analyzing games deeply and today when I played a few games and it felt like I knew what I was doing without feeling anxious. So the goal is to play less, analyze more. 

I think there might be some truth in that. I have played over 5000 games ob chess.com. I could even begin to estimate how many games I have played in my life. Most reasonably strong chess players have played a lot of games. So if you want to become a really strong player you need to accept you will have to play a lot of games. 

However, just playing lots of games and making the same mistakes over and over again does not get you anywhere. That is the problem with people who just pay blitz chess. You need to take some time to think about your games, to look at them afterwards and try to understand what worked and what didn't (and why it didn't).

It's the same with most things. I am also a drummer. Drumming lots is essential to build up the muscle memory. However, sometimes I take some time out to do some work on my technique or to read about how other people approach drumming. 

I had the same experience. When I started playing chess at 15 I played a lot but stayed on a pretty low level.

But then, during summer break I didn't play at all; only thing I did was I watched dozens and dozens of YouTube chess videos. And the improvement was immense! 

After analyzing a while, I went back and look at games I've played like a year ago on this account and then I replay those games on auto right, and I realize the mistakes I made, like literally I thought to myself "did I really do that? or "why didn't I play that? because this plan doesn't work".. it's like i was having these revelation last night when I analyzed my old games. It's weird. Like right off the bat, I saw the position I thought "wow, why did I move my rooks that way? the plan was to develop and connect the rooks, why didn't do that sooner?" These little things are making a lot of sense now. 

Very very true! Some of the world's best chess champions are legends in their own minds, and never play chess at all.

If you play too much, especially blitz, of course more study will help. If you study too much, playing more serious long time control games will help. Consistent improvement requires a good balance of serious study and long time control games against stronger players.