The (not so secret) Secret to Chess Improvement

Everybody Wants to Improve-Not Everybody Knows How

After you play someone higher rated than you, or if your rating has not increased for a while, you get frustrated. How are others so good? How can you reach that level? Some players try to explain their thoughts-but I thought I'd just survey the people who have improved. I surveyed exactly 100 players who have increased their rating by approximately 300 or more rating points in the last 3 years. Those surveyed ranged from Lichess contributors to GM's to Marathon Trophy winners. I sent this message to all of them:

Hey (username here)! I am trying to find players whose rating is more than approximately 300 points higher than their rating 3 years ago, or when they opened an account, in at least 2 time controls (not including ultrabullet). I am doing this to find out what they attribute their success to. Since you qualify, I would like to ask you to choose which of these do you attribute your rating improvement to:

1. Chess Videos
2. Chess Books
3. Just playing games
4. A coach
5. Puzzles
6. Other
Please pick 2 or less, and please specify if you choose No. 6. The results of these questions from a number of people I will try to turn into a blog post. Thank you!

The Options

1. Chess Videos

This not only included game analysis videos, it also included more entertaining chess videos, chess streams, and chess opening videos and all kinds of other videos or streams. This is the most popular modern way of studying chess according to many, and steadily increasing in popularity, especially chess streams

2. Chess Books

This is the stalwart definition of studying chess, although it is on the decline with the availability of online chess resources. However, many players, especially players who play OTB, still use this historically proven method.

3. Just playing games

Of course, on an online chess site where what people do is to play games, this question is an obvious candidate for favorite. Many chess players have just played hundreds, if not thousands, sometimes even tens of thousands of games to improve at chess, and for many players, it has worked.

4. A coach

Many chess players have turned to chess coaches to improve. "The experts should know how to help you get better, right?" is the argument-and it does make sense. Even chess science apparently supports having a coach: "<strong>Working with a coach can be massively beneficial for your chess because it will make the path to mastery faster."</strong>

5. Puzzles

This one is an obvious one. We've all heard some titled player or a better chess player saying that this is the way to improve. Not only is it simple and beneficiary, it is also easily accessible for free with just a few mouse clicks.

6. Other

Who knows what helped someone else-I might have left out something important.

So which one is it?

What do the people who have improved say? In this blog we will only go into the basics of the data, in another blog post we will go more in depth (e.g. the people who chose this or that option increased the most in their rating). However, the main results are this:

Or to look at it from another perspective...

Conclusion

There are many things that must be included in your thoughts that are not shown in the previous images. As one "other" person said, (I'll paraphrase what they said), "The reason I improved is that I'm still young and have lot of time." People's financial status can also change their rating increase. However, this still is an important chunk of data, and I hope it helped you. For more blog posts on surveys and statistics, by me or my friends, join team https://lichess.org/team/team-surveys-and-statistics Special thanks to @smallfriend @IgnatiusFrost and @JustA012CheesePlayer for keeping me motivated. To be notified if I publish other blogs/studies on any topics from me, feel free to drop a follow. If this helped you or you found it interesting, I'd appreciate if you'd drop a like. Thank you for reading!!

Edit on April 25th, 2023:
Since the data concluded to be too challenging and time consuming, I instead resolved to summarize a few simple takeaways I wanted to add.
First, of all the people who improved so much, those who improved the most were.....(drumroll please!).....the people who learned from Chess Books! So, my conclusion is that chess books are the most useful. However, as one person who I asked for this article stated: "All of these options are essential."
The "Other" included multiple players saying it was option 3 (playing games) but "with analysis" they emphasized. Another was teaching youngsters how to play, which I found very interesting. I guess it brings you back to the basics. Having more time goes without saying, and another person's venture of setting big goals and having big dreams also seemed correct. My favorite "other" reply might have been: "Just loving the game and wanting to get better." Another person stated: "Having a motivation and studying your mistakes." Finally, came the answers: "watching the GM's play", "Just having the right mindset" "Stockfish opening analysis" and finally, 2 people mentioned more OTB tourneys and/or a chess club.
Thanks for reading, that's it for this project but will plan on writing blogs more frequently in the future. Bye friends, see you soon!