Is a chess coach the fastest way to get better?

My current approach of getting better is playing a game or two a day.  I would analyzing those games to see what moves the computer would have made and try to understand why the computer suggest that move. Also, I study a few tactics daily.

I have always tend to stay around the 1000 to 1100 rating but never can get to 1200 or beyond.

I'd say intro books to strategy and endgames would be better.

Like Seirawan's Winning Chess Endgames and Pachman's Modern Chess Strategy.

It would also be the most expensive way to get better. Doing puzzles (tactics) will be the best way to improve. If you hire a chess coach they will probably tell you to do a lot of that. There are also a bunch of different Youtube channels centered around chess, and they can teach a lot also. There are also articles, and even study plans here on this site. The articles are free on this site, but to access everything in the study plans you have to a paid membership on this site. So to answer your question: Yes a hiring a chess coach can be the fastest way to improve as having a much stronger player than you tell you specifically what you need to work on, and explain more difficult concepts to you, but to make it worth it you will probably have to spend more money on other resources to assist you in the study. Also you would have to be willing to put in work in addition to the time you would spend with a coach. 

For analyzing your games, I would analyze them yourself without the computer first, and see why you think you lost the game and what mistakes you made in the game. The computer can only tell you the best move, but not why.  Those lines might also be 5 to 10 moves out to get to the decisive move. The computer is good to help catch more obvious mistakes that you might have a hard time seeing or just missed. 

The puzzles and puzzle rush are good on this site, and on Lichess you can do unlimited puzzles for free. Those puzzles are taken from games that were played on that site. 

Bruh if you are serious, the best bang for your buck would be to get the diamond membership and watch the unlimited lessons and puzzles.  I mean I am not paid by Chess.com to shill the membership but they really should!

Dear Unfitpawn,

I am a certified, full-time chess coach, so I hope I can help you.  Everybody is different, so that's why there isn't only one general way to learn. First of all, you have to discover your biggest weaknesses in the game and start working on them. The most effective way for that is analysing your own games. Of course, if you are a beginner, you can't do it efficiently because you don't know too much about the game yet. There is a built-in engine on chess.com which can show you if a move is good or bad but the only problem that it can't explain you the plans, ideas behind the moves, so you won't know why is it so good or bad.

You can learn from books or Youtube channels as well, and maybe you can find a lot of useful information there but these sources are mostly general things and not personalized at all. That's why you need a good coach sooner or later if you really want to be better at chess. A good coach can help you with identifying your biggest weaknesses and explain everything, so you can leave your mistakes behind you. Of course, you won't apply everything immediately, this is a learning process (like learning languages), but if you are persistent and enthusiastic, you will achieve your goals. 

In my opinion, chess has 4 main territories (openings, strategies, tactics/combinations and endgames). If you want to improve efficiently, you should improve all of these skills almost at the same time. That's what my training program is based on. My students really like it because the lessons are not boring (because we talk about more than one areas within one lesson) and they feel the improvement on the longer run. Of course, there are always ups and downs but this is completely normal in everyone's career. 

I hope this is helpful for you.  Good luck for your games! 

#1

"My current approach of getting better is playing a game or two a day."
++ That is good.
 "I would analyzing those games to see what moves the computer would have made and try to understand why the computer suggest that move."
++ That is good.
"Also, I study a few tactics daily."
++ That is good.

"I have always tend to stay around the 1000 to 1100 rating but never can get to 1200 or beyond."
++ A rating of 1100 is a sign of frequent blunders. Always check your intended move is no blunder before you play it. This little mental discipline alone is enough to get to 1500. As long as you hang pieces and pawns all study is in vain.

Think of it this way: without doing the work, you won't improve. Nobody can make you better if you don't put in some work. However, if you do want to do the work, training with a good coach will make you stronger so much faster. The main disadvantage of learning on your own is that you might not know yourself what exactly the reason or the lesson is. A good coach will eliminate such questions: they know the basic concepts that you need to learn. Also, the coach can give you the information faster and more concise than a book normally is. And you might have to find new resources (books, articles) to study new concepts while a coach has the information already and can teach you without you having to look for the right books/videos/articles.