The key to improving at chess is to try your very hardest each game you play.

Th
e rest is details.
The reason why serious tournament players tend to improve faster than casual pla
yers is simply because they are trying harder during each game that they play.
Whenever we make real effort at something, our brain forms connections, like pat
hways between neurons. The analogy is something like this -- imagine a pathfinde
r in a thick forest cutting away underbrush with a machete. The harder he works,
the more plentiful his paths through the bush will be. And the more clear these
paths will be. If he works really hard, he soon has a whole network of crisscro
ssing paths through this dense forest. Meaning, he can find his way around quick
er and more efficiently.
The higher brain functions needed for efficiency in chess work in a similar fash
ion. These brain functions require pathways, neuron-connections, to be establish
ed, much like those needed for learning a foreign language. These pathways or co
nnections cannot be established if the effort is not applied to creating them.
So-called "genius" is really nothing but 90% perspiration, and 10% ins
piration. As Fischer once remarked, "effective tactics in chess flow from a
sound position". The "sound position" arises from the 90% perspi
ration, that is, the hard work applied to creating the brain connections that co
me from practice. The harder we try to think through each position, calculating
as far as we can see and pushing ourselves to see further each time, the more br
ain connections needed for that type of calculating are being formed, and the ea
sier it will be to calculate that far next time.
The strongest chess masters all worked their butts off to get where they are. As
the great philosopher Gurdjieff once said, "nothing is possible in life wi
thout aim and effort." He also said, "if you can do one thing well, yo
u can do anything well." So the neat thing about grasping the cause and eff
ect relationship between sincerity of effort and improvement at chess, is how it
shows us a golden key to success at anything in life.