lichess.org
Donate

Study Plan

Analyze your games, discover your weaknesses and work on them (?). You might for instance start by creating a private interactive study (with the octopus) with your blunders, mistakes and missed wins, especially if a certain pattern repeats itself among them (?).
I feel you must first evaluate yourself,if you have a good coach you can ask him/her.then start doing the following-
play games
tactics
study books
study games
work on openings
in 2 hr spans spread throughout the day
I understand the idea of studying something like the Bible, or the Koran, or the Golden Dawn system, Kabbalistic Alchemy, Zen of Archery, Sun Tzsu, anatomy, astronomy, Linguistics... etc. ( I just don't understand why I should study chess or why a chess rating really matters... I enjoy the game. I enjoy tactics. I enjoy endgame puzzles. I enjoy playing through master games. And to me the joy of the game is all that really matters. I am highly suspicious of the dreadful 'STUDY PLAN". It's not natural.
there are people who play out of pure passion and others who want to be systematic,the point is too measure how much you do and how long
@NUMBER2PENCIL , you can play musical instruments without studying any chords or rhythms which is just a hobby. If you enjoy your life like that whatever you are doing, it is fine.

But majority of people would like to do " proper / decent" , skill even in hobbies.
@drmrboss I know many people with various hobbies and none of them employ ' STUDY PLANS'. And there are great musicians who cannot and need not read music... great musicians that do not and will not practice scales....learning a cord or a rhythm, ya sure, but that doesn't qualify as 'Study' .... and 'MUSIC THEORY' is about as absurd as chess opening theory.
As I said before, you can do whatever you like without studying or learning from others. Your example, talented musicians, without studying, his/ her chance of success will be 1 in millions. Not just musics, even in shooting games for fun, people watch and learn from professionals because they would like to play like professionals.

Studying chess is tedious, and more difficult to learn than other games. However, without studies, and without preparations, chance of success to be top 10 pros will be less than 1 in billions/ Trillions.
Learn pawn structure from opening, mid and endgame. Most players below 2000 r weak at this points. Opss that include me lol
"What are the best themes for adding to it?"
Train tactics.
Play rapid or classical games and use all the time the time control allows.
Whenever you lose a game, analyse it thoroughly.
Study endgames especially rook endings.

This topic has been archived and can no longer be replied to.