Realistic goals for adults？

Adults are stubborn and have a hard time learning new things. That's me. Is the ceiling 1000? I don't like books and they're expensive, so I don't buy them. I don't hire a coach either. I want to use only online resources. Can I get to 1500 without reading and coaching? How many years do I have to wait?

If you are new to chess, I suggest playing puzzles, but if you have been playing chess for years, I suggest you just play, and you'll somehow get to 1500 rating. Note : it's my experience and maybe not applicable to you because everyone is different.

Quit. Win win

Changed the title

It's not actually a mindset issue, it's just biologically speaking, adults can't improve very much.

Nobody will be able to tell you. First of all no two persons are alike. One might start at age 70+, just play casually, will not even try to improve and will not even be especially talented for chess.
The second one might be a 20 year old who plays and studies chess a lot, who has talent as well.

Between those two there will be a whole world of difference.
One adult will get to 400 rapid in chess.com, the other will be FM for instance.

Getting to 1 500 can be relatively easy or very very hard, depending from the person in question.
Being stubborn (not every adult is stubborn by the way) doesn't help of course, because if the person in question is wrong, they will not progress (in anything, not just chess).

16 is very young, the only certainty is that top 20 is probably out of your reach.

Everything else depends on a bunch of variables. How much can you progress? We can only speculate.

Bottom line, a lot of hard work stands in front of you.

At 16, your memory and concentration are at their peak, so surely your ceiling is very high? I'm 31, and they're clearly deteriorating, I forget things a lot in my daily life, and it's even hard to watch a movie for 30 minutes. Oh, I wish I had more free time and started when I was younger. Many masters started at 5 or 6, so they've forgotten the hardships they faced, and their advice sometimes seems off the mark. They probably don't understand the hardships of adults.

My ceiling may be much lower than I expected. To be honest, it's frustrating and hard to accept, but I can't trade my brain for someone else's. I hope that medical science will advance further and make it possible.

As has already been mentioned ‘it depends’ as everyone is different, however I would have thought most adults of 31 would have a very good chance of reaching 1500 if they’re willing to devote time to it.

How long it could take though could vary significantly from person to person.

I guess that saying that almost everyone's ceiling is much higher than they think is useless because you've said that you are stubborn, but I will still try.

Even those who are not talented (I am not saying that is the case with you, but there are people who are less talented than others) can get probably over 2 000 chess.com rating if they are committed to chess and they study the right way, plus they devote a lot of time to it (of course it is not realistic from an adult to devote that much time, but some are able to).

The reason why many people don't get very far is their habits. If they do things the wrong way and refuse to change, they will not get very far.

For instance, playing multiple 10 minute games per day and nothing else will not get you far if you are not talented. For instance, if you are not talented (some people are and will progress even by playing blitz, but most of us are not like that), 10 minute chess is way, way too fast for you especially when you are lower rated.

Some people will be around 700 for years doing stuff like that. That is one of the reasons why the average rating is around 600 and some small change.

You need to look through your games. People misunderstand what does this mean, so I will give 2 extreme examples.

Person 1: Plays 10 minute game, then fires up the report, go through moves in 90 seconds and say: Whoa, that was some hard work, on to another game.

Person 2: Plays a longer game and uses his time, which allows him to view the position for much longer even during the game. After the game is done, this person spends 4 hours in order to try to figure every little detail out, and to figure out what makes sense to him, what doesn't.

Most of us are somewhere in between these 2 people.

Suffice to say, person number 2 is very rare, and such a person will do other things as well in order to progress. Such a person can certainly say after let's say 7 years: Ok, I am now certain that my ceiling is X rating.

Person number 1 will say after a few months of playing: Wow, I am so untalented, I have a really low ceiling, which is of course simply not true.

The truth is that person number 1 didn't really try to reach that ceiling, which is completely ok, as not everyone wants to dedicate their time to that anyway, but we should be realistic and try not to lie to ourselves.

Now a bit of encouragement. For most of us chess is a hobby. It can take up as much or as little time as you wish. You shouldn't feel pressured to have to be really strong player.

If you can enjoy it, you can enjoy it on 400 level and on 2 000 level. If you like chess, then play without pressure and improve at your own pace, if that is what you seek and enjoy.

Whatever you decide, I wish you a lot of luck and a nice day.

Hi

I think you can go as high as you wish if you devote yourself to it

How can i play chess? I'm not good at it.......

What is chess anyway??

Started playing chess from scratch 4 months ago and I'm 1600 elo on chesscom, I'm aiming at 2000 within the next four months .

You'll get out of it what you put into it.

If you want to improve, it takes dedicated study and practice.

How far you'll get depends a lot on how much (and how diligently) you're willing to work for it.

With you saying that you're not willing to read or hire a coach, your options are a bit limited. But learning is still very possible. YouTube instructional videos might be a great choice for you. Though the quality of instruction can vary greatly, so you'll want to sort the wheat from the chaff.

Getting good at a skill or craft doesn't necessarily come easy, there's always a learning curve - and this is true with anything in life ...

I went from the 1900s (OTB) to 2350 (chess.com) at age 62.

Chess is a state of mind.

At what age did you start?