You can't improve at chess if you don't have natural talent

Ok guys be real now. Everyone here thinks you can improve just from practise but the thing is no, practise alone won't necessarily get you to a higher rating. You see players who played for 5-6 years always float on the same rating. And then here is a post here on lichess saying someone played for 5 years and have a rating of 600. Most players will struggle to get past 1500-1800 for most years and this is very common thing among average players.

Obviously these young grandmaster you see nowadays are much talented then you were in your age. It makes me believe chess is based on genetic intelligence you're born with and nothing more. Yes you can sharpen your skill but you're not going to go from struggling at 1000 to 2500 in 10 years. Only few chess players has some rapid increase in their skill level but otherwise majority will just hover in the same rating for many years.

I think we all have a natural ability that determines our skill. You can't go beyond that. Believe it or not chess is certainly not 100% practise and that probably applies to anything.

Stating the obvious?

Everyone plateaus at some point.

Natural talent has nothing to do with whether a person is then able to diagnose their weaknesses, work on them, and improve.

But more importantly, no one has to improve. Chess can be a fun game to play even if one isn't working to get great.

What is the obsession people have with practice? If you were learning physics, mathematics, or medicine would you think practice would make you great?

Everyone practices. If practice equaled success everyone would be a GM.

@tixem75 You are right and wrong.
Its true that not anyone could reach a 2800 rating. It is NOT true that some mentally sound people couldn't reach a rating of 1800-2000 if they actually tried.
You are correct that there are a lot of accounts that float around the same rating for years, but look at what they are doing. They are not studying tactics, they are not playing puzzle storm/racer. They are just playing games and there is no evidence to suggest that they analyze their games, since they make the exact same opening blunder many times in a row.
If you play only for fun, you just won't get good.
You have to want to be willing to do chess for more than just fun. You have to be willing to sacrifice time in other things to stare at the board without moving the pieces, trying to imagine in your head whether this position 10 moves later is a win or a loss.
But yes, if you are just wanting to play chess and you don't want to spend 60-70 percent of your chess time just studying rather than playing, you won't ever get good.
Imagine if people did nothing but do math problems. They would never pass a certain level. They would be able to add and subtract, but not multiply and divide. If they never invested the time to learn how to do those other things, do you think they will ever solve a multiplication problem? Of course not.
But that doesn't mean they can't learn.
Chess is harder for some people than for others, but its not impossible for anyone to improve, if they care enough. Most people either don't care, or they lack the discipline to make themselves do something about it.
Sorry for the long post. If you actually read every word, you have my respect.

@StingerPuzzles You know the quote, "Genius is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration"?
It's true. Practicing in math DOES make you great.
I have personal experience there. Math competitions. First year I came in and got 10/100 points, scoring 27th out of 33 in the state. A few years later, after practicing consistently, I got second place statewide.
Its not mostly about natural talent. I don't want to sound rude or condescending at all. that is not my intention, but the bottom line is that when people say natural talent, what they really mean is I have never really tried with everything I could, and I don't want to. This is an excuse to not try any harder.
Look at the great mathematicians and chess players of the past. They were born with something different about them. Bobby fischer was always odd. Albert einstein was always clever with math. But einstein spent all day in his room thinking about light and doing math problems out of his so called, "holy geometry book". He practiced.

Bobby fischer went around begging his family to play chess with him, and when they wouldn't, he sat on his bed all day and played with himself. When someone gave him a chess book with some master games, he had all 33000+ moves in the book memorized in a few weeks. He practiced. All day, everyday.
And he was the greatest player the world has ever seen, in my opinion.

To be much above the common folks in chess you must be born with:
- excellent memory (it's the most important)
- ability to learn quickly (very important)
- superb calculation
- fast thinking
- high intelligence (not so important but always welcome)

Your personality should be defined by focus and excellent time management.

Then and only then, practicing. It is the least important and is suitable only if the previous conditions are fulfilled.

Hard work is a talent. (Kasparov)

@Sarg0n So true. It's also learned or unlearned though.