The best way to get better at chess, is join diamond membership, and you can watch videos and tactic trainers.
I'm living proof. I was 780 last year and almost 1500 this year
The analysis board taught me one thing: I'll never be a great chess player.
Sort:
And he isn't even a diamond member!
I'm in the exact same boat as you Eo. I'm much better at correspondence than over the board (because of the analysis board). Much better playing slow chess than playing blitz. I've got to agree with you on this one --Some people are never going to be great OTB players because they just don't have the mental equipment for the the calculation. That said... my experience is those books aren't a waste of time at all. With hard work and a lot of book study I've noticed gains in all phases of my game.
I'm scared to test it, but I believe even my blitz chess has improved because my positional judgement is so improved my instincts seem to be better... this may just be a fantasy though, I don't want to know the truth, LOL.
Bottomline though. Study helps. ... and so does the analysis board 
I'm so much better at correspondence than OTB thanks to the analysis board, opening preparation, and the fact that I can sit for three days and look at lines. It's actually depressing to me - I feel like I'm not playing with my actual strength. I've definitely improved over the past year, but I feel that I could not pull off some of the tactical things I do in my games outside of correspondence.
Does anyone have any suggestions? I'm almost debating resigning all of my games and only playing OTB/in live chess/with no analysis board or opening help.
What happens if you don't use the analysis board during a correspondence game? Are you noticing any gained pattern recognition? I think that to improve in live chess, you need three things: 1) a consistent repertoire of 1 e4 opening as white, 1 e4 reply as black, and 1 d4 reply as black. 2) to go over finished games and find your mistakes in tactics, logic, and position. 3) committ to not making those mistakes again. By narrowing your approach you can become more familiar with particular positions, and by gaining the knowledge and searching for mistake patterns, you can only get better.
JimSardonic wrote:
What happens if you don't use the analysis board during a correspondence game? Are you noticing any gained pattern recognition? I think that to improve in live chess, you need three things: 1) a consistent repertoire of 1 e4 opening as white, 1 e4 reply as black, and 1 d4 reply as black. 2) to go over finished games and find your mistakes in tactics, logic, and position. 3) committ to not making those mistakes again. By narrowing your approach you can become more familiar with particular positions, and by gaining the knowledge and searching for mistake patterns, you can only get better.
It's not about pattern recognition. It's about visualizing sequences of moves.
It might not make a lot of sense to compare a blitz rating to an online chess rating, but compare my blitz rating to my online chess rating anyway. As you can see, I'm pathetic at blitz but top 97% at online chess. Not great but not bad either. Of course, there could be several explanations for such a huge discrepancy in performance, but in my opinion my "success" in online chess is owed mainly to the fact that when I play online chess I have access to an analysis board which I use extensively. How do I jump to the conclusion that I will never be a great chess player? If I could mentally conduct the analyses I conduct on the analysis board, that is, if I could play chess without crutches, I would be a much less mediocre chess player. Incidentally, I believe that most chess books are not worth the paper they are written on. The authors of those books sell you the illusion that if you read their books you will become a better chess player, but based on what I have seen I believe that those books might help some people, especially beginners and advanced chess players, but for almost everyone in between (the target market) they are a waste of time. Why? Because if you don't have the ability to visualize things, then no matter how much theory you learn, you will continue to make seemingly reasonable moves that turn out to be horrible moves in the long term.