Realistically, how fast do people progress?

I've been on the site for a little over a year now and my rating has gone up by 250 points (ish). It's gone from 900-1150 so I'm assuming that it's not that quick a jump considering both levels are quite low. I try to play every day, how fast should I expect to progress in the next few years? I know everyone would be different, but is there an average? And is there a limit to how good I can get, as in an average limit? I've seen some people on the site that say they have been here for a few years and are on 1400, the thought of not getting past that at all scares me...

Hi JoshoewaG.  Since you are on the site for over a year I am sure you know that with your post and provoking questions you are unleashing the dragons.  Hang on! It will be a bumpy ride.   Study books and always do tactics.  Best wishes in your progress.

It depends what you do in order to improve. You have bad chess habits now, lots of them probably. The more you do to imprint them in your brain, the harder it will be to get rid of them and the earlier you'll plateau.

The most notorious ways to do that is to play a lot of blitz (no thinking, only habitual moves, best way to get stuck on some level), to memorize opening theory you got from some database or book and never really understood, and then repeating those same lines ad nauseam in blitz games...

If you want to get better, don't stick with the old ideas, focus on the new, and doing a lot of thinking for yourself. Work on problems on an actual board and pieces. Play slow, serious games. Talk to strong players about chess. Talk about the game with your opponent after the game. Constantly switch openings, and look for new ideas yourself. Work on concentration.

And don't care about rating, if you do the right things, rating will follow.

I've been on the site for a year but I've never been active in the forums (I've alway had negative feelings towards them, I'm not sure why). I've started studying books a couple of days ago and I'm already seeing an improvement! I do tactics training every day literally every time I have a spare moment (I have an app on my phone). My rating on the trainer (glick rating, I believe) is 1550 (ish) but I can never seem to apply tactics to my games...

I've only been reading books for a few days but I've already noticed an improvement! I hadn't thought about the solidifying bad habits thing, but plaing blitz games sounds good, thanks for the tip!

I do care about my rating, but I don't play solely because I want my rating to go up, I play because I want to improve and I know that rating is an ilustrator of skill level, and I want a rating I can be proud of! :)

For laughs, I checked my all-time history to see what the progress was.  Standard (mostly 15-10) chess went from 1400 to about 1550-1600 in about 2 years.  Highest achieved was 1660.  Best win, 1744. Average opponent 1520.  Overall winning percentage 47% win, 47% loss, 5% draw.  If you pay for the diamond membership you can poke around other people's profiles and see their progress and games.  You can even see a nice graph to show how pathetically slow we are all progressing. 

It seems like I've got a long journey ahead of me. Oh well, I suppose nothing worth having comes easy!

Hey JoshoewaG.  My instructor adviced me to do tactics thematically.  In chess.com I don't know if that is possible because the Tactics Trainer gives you whatever tactical motif.  There is another site, chesstempo.com, where you can do tactics by topic, where the motifs are divided in 23 cathegories that you can train on indepently.  This is nice because you can pinpoint yourself what your weaknesses are and address them, and in the same way you findout what tactical shots you are best at.

On a side note about your comment on the long journey ahead of you.  Every person is different although is true there may be some statistical disctribution on time to progress at chess. You do play because you like the game, and for sure other reasons as well, in consequence just enjoy your ride, progress will be a consequence of your dedication.  Cheers.

I've been on this site just over a year and my blitz rating has gone up from sub-700 to peaking at close to 1600. Tactics gone up from ~500 to ~2000. Standard from 700 to 1550. Online from 900 to 1730. 

To improve, I did around 10-12k tactical puzzles in all, and I've a long way to go. Only recently have I started studying the endgame, opening in depth, grandmaster games etc. 

That's a good idea, thanks! How frequently do you do thematic puzzles and how often do you play?

That's really impressive! Where do you do the puzzles? I.e do you use an online trainer or a book? And have you studied any tactics books? (Like predator?)

I haven't improved much in over 30 years. Then again, when I joined a chess club years ago and met a player who was listed on the chess club membership roster at about 900 and in about a year he was about 2200 and the Arizona State Champion. I guess it is hard to say whether or how much a person can improve.

I think that's the biggest leap I've ever heard of.  don't suppose you know his study plan, do you? ;)

Each person has a genetic limit as to how good they can get (the "average patzer" does in fact have the cognitive capacity to get much better than you might think). The rate at which you improve will correlate somewhat with this, but those who have the best practice techniques and have good metacognitive abilities (they think about how they think/practice/study) will always progress faster than someone who is playing blitz games or playing normal games mindlessly. 

**Realistically

I believe that getting to 1,400 in the next year is very possible for you. HOWEVER, it will only happen if you are training proactively. This means that you are analyzing your own games, facing stronger players, doing tactics etc. Since you seem to be doing this somewhat but are struggling to apply it, you can add me and I will gladly give you some tips and hints to point you in the right direction.

i'm USCF 939, haha! I actually don't play in many tournaments (money being a main problem)! Realistically, I think it matters how much effort you really put into chess... I'm planning to seriously improve in the next year, to possibly 1200-1400. Still working on breaking the 1000, of course.

Suggestions: Well first off, I see you were scared because other people weren't moving past a rating. If you put in the effort that perhaps they are not putting in, you could soar higher than them. Be confident, too! I'm getting a lot more tactics down and my chess teacher says I improved greatly from the 2012 to 2013 year. It just takes time and practice, mixed with hard work. 

I don't think genetic limits will be a problem, I'm very intelligent but I don't plan on being the next world champion or anything :P

I've recently (over the past few days) been more conscious of how I study, I'm trying to structure my thinking habits, analyse my games and read more books. (I saw an article on the site with 14 recommended books, and I'm currently working my way through them).

That's a very generous offer, thank-you very much!

The only rating systems I'm familiar with are the Elo and Glicko, sorry :P I'm planning on putting significantly more effort into my study and games, it seems to be the recommended way to improve :P Thanks for the advice!

Be very careful with this. I would suggest using no more than 2 books at a time. Pick 2 that would be most helpful and go with those.

Most of them are very basic, like Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess and Pandolfini's UGTC, I'll make sure I fully understand all of the lesson in each book before I move on to the next