How does one become a natural at chess?

Is there anything one can do - mental or physical exercise, diet, training, study, motivational lectures, to become a natural at chess?

Is there any nurture that constitutes nature?

You can't just become a natural at something. That's why its called well, uh, natural. You can only control your studying, diet, exercise, etc. But you can't control what you naturally have or don't have.

All the great natural players seem to excel at tactics. I don't know why.

the question seems really silly at first, but then I think: to be good at chess (that is, in addition to actually study chess) you need to have a powerful brain.

so if you exercise your brain you're much more likely to be more powerful at chess also. Not automatically improving, but making your chess practice easier and more effective.

so yes, having a job that requires you to do some serious thinking/problem solving surely helps.

for diet, everything that helps the brain really. vitamins, omega 3, water, sleep.

Natural may not be the best word. Instinctual would be a bit more accurate. I see it as no different from great players in other games or sporting activities around the world. How can an archer aim just right at a high angle to make a shot? How can a Tennis player hit the same spot over and over again from different parts of the court?

I think when something is done so much and you know enough about the game being played, the result, the "motion" becomes almost instinctual to the point that it looks effortless to everybody else.

I ask a similar question when playing Disk Golf. I often wonder how I, or anybody else, is able to throw a disk at just the right angle and intensity when calculations such as weight, wind speed/direction, foliage, and distance must be taken into account.

Train without your clothes. No, wait, that would be a naturist at chess.

Would that be akin to "freeing your mind" :P

I said natural, not "au naturel".  

The best way to become a natural at chess is by reincarnation.  The earlier you start the quicker you get there.  

I dunno, perhaps stripping yourself of this world's material wealth and harboring a natural connection with the universe will free your thoughts and allow you to more naturally comprehend the many facades of chess.

There you go!  My thoughts exactly. Now if we can figure out how epigenomics ties into that we can lobby for its inclusion in the Unified Theory. As a man thinketh in his heart so he becomes?   Character is destiny?  Fake it 'til you make it?  If I am destined to be reincarnated as a chess master, it will be over many lifetimes I assume, as I like playing but I cannot get serious about studying.  I can't take it as seriously as something like software engineering, inventing, gardening, home improvement, guitar, etc...  even though I spend ungodly amounts of time playing blitz and putzing around on the forums (many of my secret-not-so-admirers will atest to the latter).  But I digress.

Anyway, kudos on your well-rounded open-mindedness and wisdom, again, as always. :-)  And I'm not just saying you're wise because we agree about the possibility of reincarnation, but it doesn't hurt.

It worked for me.

Yes master.

You people are simply pathetic. Nobody is just a "natural". Calling someone a natural is to negate all the hard work he put into what it is he does. Just because you guys can't do it does give you the right to denegrate all their hard work. Grow up!

I see you continually putting yourself up on a pedestal and creating a divisive air between yourself and the lesser peons (according to you), around you.  First of all, you seemed to have missed that the thread is sardonic.  Humor.  And you missed a lot of other subtle indicators, subtext and possibilities too.  But do you see me calling you a troglodyte for all your ignorance?  No, you don't see me doing that, which makes my point.

If we're talking about reincarnation and the possibility that hard work in one life leads to inexplicable serendipitous prodigal skill in the next, then conservation of energy exists.  There's no free lunch.  So we in no way suggested that to be a natural (were I not joking in the first place) was a denial of the hard work to get there.  We simply did not say at all.   

And the humor of my thread (which I assumed and hoped more people would understand based on my threads in general, and the remote possibility I might actually be able to comprehend what I wrote) is that, being a natural and striving are rather opposites ... one could not be a natural as the result of striving, by definition.

Unless . . . .  .

we're talking about hair color. Many people are destined to live the next life as a blond or with never a grey hair.

Oh, I get the connection - life is a bleach, and then you dye.

Yes!Yes! That was hilarious. Well done. Actually laughing.