The most evil thing about chess

It's only when you get "good" that you realize how utterly bad you are and how much there still is to learn

A lot of times I wonder when that stops. Like to 2200's realize just how ultra noob they are?

The things that addict to chess: the fluffy side of it's fun, and the darker side of this effect.

Anyway, thou knowest, philosophers are famous for saying the same thing about wisdom.

The cycle for me goes:

Make leap in strategy understanding,

Spend a bunch of time smoothing out blunders,

Repeat

Every new level brings a new realm of mistakes.

Even GM Penguin knows he's not very good overall. He doesn't even intend to pursue a professional career in chess. And he's one of the best players on the planet. It ever ends.

Dunning-Kruger

I mean you have 8 billion possible competitors, at the moment there are likely tens to hundreds of millions who play the game. It's absurd to think you can get to the top easily, or even if you try hard for that fact. Either you give it everything, or you won't get even near the top.

Not really Dunning-Kruger. I play in the top 99% of the pool, 99.4% at my peak. My point was when you know a lot, new vistas of knowledge open up, and you realize you're nothing special at all, with so much more to learn.

I'm still waiting to get "good"!

The right coach makes all the difference.

A 800 gets beat like a drum by a 1200. The 1200 gets his ass kicked by a 1600. The 1600 gets owned by a 1900. The 1900 is like a beginner to a 2300. A 2300 gets his ass handed to him by a 2500. A 2500 gets adopted by Magnus. Magnus gets completely destroyed and adopted by a cell phone running shredder. Shredder gets destroyed by Stockfish. Stockfish gets its ass handed to AND stomped by alphazero +155 -6. Welcome to chess.