In Annotated Game #267 (“How openings are really learned”) I highlighted the cycle for acquiring deeper understanding of openings and their early middlegame plans: play consistently, analyze your games, and you will inevitably expand your understanding of them step by step.
Separate but closely related to that, I recently ran across what I thought was a well-articulated (and simple) version of the broader learning cycle at Chessmood:
https://chessmood.com/blog/how-to-get-better-at-chess
The full article addresses other things like the importance of mindset, but below is how they present the cycle. It’s worth clarifying that the “Practice” step, in the sense we are talking about, does not mean reviewing your stored opening repertoire (or other knowledge) by yourself; rather, it is about using your chess knowledge (opening, middlegame, endgame) under actual combat conditions. Improvement via analyzing your own games then becomes an iterative process that yields concrete results over time, even if temporary setbacks occur.
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The chess improvement formula
It’s quite simple.
Study -> Practice -> Fix -> (Repeat)
You learn something first.
You practice it; otherwise, you’ll forget it.
You fix the mistakes you make.
Then you learn new things, and the cycle continues.
