Originally Posted by Just2Good
1. Coaching - 10%
2. Studying tactics/problems - 30%
3. Studying annotated (master) games - 15%
4. Opening Books - 2%
5. End Game - 2%
6. Studying pawn structure - 0%
7. Middle game books - 7%
8. Other? - 34%
Other would be simply playing several tournament games and blitz regularly, figuring out what worked and what didn't.
How can pawn structure score 0%??????? Pawn structure is REALLY REALLY important. Stronger players take pawn structure for granted, but weaker players often dont know much about it at all (I know this through coaching people). The pawn structure is the wall or the foundation of the house or the tree. The pieces are the bricks or the monkeys, squirrels or koalas that play through the tree (whichever analogy you like best). I think that people who learn about and understand pawn structure well, often improve a lot and become strong players. Pawn structure dictates so much in chess.
If people understand (not just know about, but really understand) passed pawns, protected passed pawns, isolated pawns, hanging pawns, backward pawns, doubled pawns and pawn islands, chess will become a lot easier for them to play. They wont necessarily get better (that comes through hard work and using all of Pablitos criteria together), but chess will get easier for them.