Well the other portion of the equation- which is loss of chess strength due to age, is much harder to quantify. It's clear in physical sports that by the mid 30's athletes are already in decline, but at what level that becomes noticeable for an amateur is conjecture.

What you are suggesting fits exactly with what I said. A barrier you are unwilling to pass is the time you must give for the improvement to happen.  That being said... thats why most kids improve and few adults do. Kids have no demand on their time beyond hobbies and school. Adults have many from work to school to family to others and hobbies generally occupy the lowest rung.

Mihai Suba only began playing in his 20's and went on to become a top GM. Its a common myth/dogma that we are sold this stuff about chess being a young mans game etc. I believe improvement is possible at any age.

gewgaw wrote on 11/17/10 at 13:05:56:


There's more to chess than ratings. And sometimes you have to take a small step backward to make a large leap forward. 

If I started declining in OTB chess, I'd focus on becoming World Correspondence Champion instead.

Edit: Men don't reach their peak at 18. Chess might be a young man's game, but not that young. 

I also have a sort of problem ...
I am rated 2000 in chess and I am 27 ... but the next step after winning a public tournament in the regional congress and small master tournament some time ago would be to get to 2250 to be able to win the ultimate master tournament in my region, or even more try to get the FM title reaching 2300 ELO ... but currently I am in a quite heavy master program in computer science, so I have not really time for chess, besides playing some blitz ... but even then I don't really think I will continue chess, because the next step to reach (e.g. rating 2200 or FM title) is just too far away for me ... I need to spend my energy on my career ... and being a computer scientist, I don't need to play additionally chess, because my profession is already quite intellectual ... 
also for me personally chess just takes too long, I don't want to play in 9 round tournaments, where where is only 1 round per day, or something ... I'd prefer a more rapid-orientated approach ...
but the break did quite good to me, because I played a good blitz tournament recently after not having participated in a tournament for about 6 months, I won against some 2200's and almost won against a 2400 player ... I really don't know why that is, because I am really out of training ...