Practice when a young student I played at recess after School and lunch also played standard games on Fics ICC and Chess Net 25.0, 35.0,45.0,60.0 from 4:00 PM to 2:00 AM against all comers.
Played in School Tournaments Echecs et Mathes in Montreal whenever I got the chance to play
Correspondence Chess played Postal Chess (with cards)
and turned based Chess games on servers against good players 1750-2050 for years lost lots of games but won alot too.
When I was a teenager borrowed all the books at the city library most were from the 1960's and 1970's read them all. I solved the problems in Fred Reinfeld's 1001 Brilliant ways to Checkmate and 1001 Chess Sacrifices and Combinations this book helped improve my board vision with constant practice.
I played over tons of Master games on a chess set from books which helped me too.