whats helped you improve?

I always hear people searching for the magical idea to make them better. But I think improvement is a lot more individually based. Not that I have improved much lately but what has helped me than most is seeing my opponents threats. I was curious to was has helped you guys improve?

At first - powerful wish to improve . at second - i always play with opponents, who is better than i,( its helped me too much) ,at third -  books ( Smyslov - science of win, Nimtzowich - my system and Max Euwe - strategy and tactics in chess ( i translated the names from russian  )) do the same and you in short time will have a progress

Training visualization skills by calculating longer lines, for example exchange lines.

Playing and playing and playing some more.

The YouTube Videos of John Bartholomew... particularly the Chess Fundamentals playlist, but most any of his vids really.  The majority of them feature him playing online against an opponent and explaining move for move what he's doing and why, incorporating key concepts and pointing those out along the way as well.

 How do beat your dad at chess-Murray Chandler

The Genesis of power Chess-Leslie ault

Build up Your Chess 1-Artur Yusupov

The Yusupov series. 

And Chess Network on YouTube 🎞️

Reduce the frequency of hanging pieces.  Which is a combination of improving in two areas:  1. Board Vision.  2.  Thought Process, i.e., What is the idea of his last move?  and Doing a Safety Check before making a move.

The most helpful thing that helped me improve? When I read chess for dummies and it showed me how the pieces moved.

Tactics and game analysis. Not just my own games, though that does help a ton; I go through Chessbase or TWIC finding random games either of masters that I admire (Jobava, Shabalov, etc) or just average players 1800-2000+ and analyze them, finding the players' plans and where they went wrong/things they did correctly. Analysis is - to me - the ONLY way to truly improve your ability to assess positions and make good plans. Books help too, but in a more passive way than active game analysis

Purposeful, regular, focused, study and practice. For example I'd get a book, and spend __ hours a day, every day, for few months. Or I'd get a group of tactical puzzles and solve them __ hours a day, every day, for a few months. Or I'd get a group of games, and go over them __ hours a day, every day, for a few months. When I read, take notes, review the notes, and even re-read parts of the book. When solving puzzles, re-try failed puzzles or puzzles that were interesting or difficult. When going over games, save interesting ones or ones related to my opening to go over again.

Those sorts of activities.

As for playing, I'd review all my games. The opening vs a database and the rest of it with an engine for any big mistakes. I'd explore any interesting positions with the engine. Sometimes I just let the engine show me moves, other times I basically play against it, sometimes spending a few minutes per move, and play out the position until I understand why a move works / doesn't work. Maybe it reaches an endgame and I feel like exploring or testing myself in that endgame or I analyze that or play it against the engine.

A lot of training is done like this... just because a position is interesting. In these cases it's hard to recall exactly what I do. It's probably the same for most players... they aren't telling you the day to day stuff they do just because chess is fun for them.

Playing 30-0 games instead of shorter games helped me.

• 500 Master Games, Tartakower
• reviewing games played, won or lost (this is the hardest part)
• ichess.net

Play better people.

STUDY consistently.(opening, middlegame, endgame)

Tactics!!!

Do your own analysis.  Engines are nice, but they dont explain "why"

Have someone better go over your games.  

Play OTB tournaments games.

Keep bullet/blitz to a very minimum (1-2 games a day)

Play correspondance chess.

Use a real board, pieces, and books.

I am awful, awful, awful but did get a small boost from mid 900s to mid 1000s which i attributed to queen trading leading me to learn endgame better because with both queens off the board, it invariably comes down to pawn graduation for mate at my level. Gave me better endgame practice which improved my game even though i am still awful. Luckily i am awful only during the opening, middle game and end game.....i am good at the rest.

Play in a chess club and analyze with stronger players

This is exactly right. Analyzing, followed by analyzing, and then analyzing some more will improve your chess. Without developing that ability, no books, videos, or engines will make you a really strong player. The most helpful source I've seen for learning how to analyze is Kotov's "Think Like a Grandmaster". 

Congratulations, TalSpin, on making expert.

Tactics, looking over my game for mistakes and to find better plans

and I strongly agree with post #17

-playing slow serious games with a stronger opponent helps a Lot!

and lest a forget; a nod to people I've taken lessons from

Having a strong player strive to coach is VERY instructive! provided (ofc) that you put in lots of effort on your end.

Active participation in team vote chess matches was instrumental in  my improving my game, interacting with higher rated players regarding counter moves and their various continuations.

In my 20's, my ego and 147 IQ misled me to believe I needed to know strategy including the ideas behind several openings, the main endgame techniques and I'd figure out that tactics for myself.

It wasn't until I began studying tactics and patterns in my mid-40's and on that I became a decent-quality chessplayer.