Does Effort really matter?

I've seen 1300s reading quite difficult endgame books for months and still stuck at that rating, and 1500s who bought 2 or 3 chessable courses, and spend 2 hours a day on them, yet their win rate didn't go up the slightest bit. 1800s who hired a chess coach, or joined a class, and did not see much results.
...
And People who said they didn't really do anything on purpose to improve and somehow reached 2000.

Yes, efforts are important.
We must remember our time as babies:
Sitting, crawling, standing, walking.

Thanks to God, our parents, our babies' form, we can running & playing chess now.

Nothing really matters--as anyone can see. Nothing really matters to me!

Age matters much.

Efforts do matter in chess... The more you put effort into a game, the better it will be.. And there are various reasons for the ratings not increasing...

I have a serious non rhetorical question in response. Where exactly have you “seen” people you say you saw? I mean, how many examples? Do you know for sure they spend the time they say they do? Do they actually want to do it and enjoy it?

It’s possible chess is just not interesting enough for them or they may see it as a sort of waste of time. I cannot disagree with them. Kids may be more captivated by the game , if they enjoy it in the first place, so they may learn more give absence of other interests or anxious thoughts. I also don’t think it’s necessarily for the benefit of any child or teen to spend too much time in chess.

Chess is also not for every adult. Yes, I think not everyone will improve in proportion to the time spent studying chess. But maybe it actually is a waste of time to spend a lot of time studying? I mean it’s unrealistic that it will bring any monetary reward. But if you enjoy playing it for the sake of the process of playing it then whether you improve significantly or not does not really matter.

When you read chess books, engine then everyone does...what's make u so unique and stronger than average chess players...

@FreeGlobalMarkets said in #7:
> I have a serious non rhetorical question in response. Where exactly have you “seen” people you say you saw? I mean, how many examples? Do you know for sure they spend the time they say they do? Do they actually want to do it and enjoy it?

At My lócal chess club and some in the lichess forum. Handful of people >10. While I'm not sure if they really enjoy chess, they definitely want the achievements. Who would lie about finishing a chess book?

@InstantNoodlePasta said in #9:
> At My lócal chess club and some in the lichess forum. Handful of people >10. While I'm not sure if they really enjoy chess, they definitely want the achievements. Who would lie about finishing a chess book?

I see. My question was not intended to suggest that you lied. I also doubt the people you asked lie. What I think is that they may be studying the books but they just cannot study them with enough focus, or enough motivation to actually retain as much as kids would. Of course there is mental rigidity adults have so they cannot learn as flexibly as younger people, but in my opinion people with adults lives have more concerns and anxieties to motivate themselves. I cannot prove this, this is just unverified guess, that if a person, for example is locked in a prison, or in some sort of confinement in which their mind has no choice of things to focus on except chess books, and a chess board, then they will learn and retain much more. Simply because in the back of their mind they know there is no way out of the cell, no choice of activities, no movies, video games. To them chess can become as way to maintain their sanity. I remember reading how this is the reason a lot of people play chess in prisons, and also specifically that prisoners of Germans in the camps had to play chess to stay sane.