“I am convinced that you are either born with a brain that can input and execute chess moves or you are not.”
Hmmmm. I halfway agree, that in order to get really good, you have to have gone through a very intense training period when you were fairly young, just because the way a young brain absorbs stuff versus the way us cabbageheads absorb stuff. And at a time when it didn’t bother you to blow off so many hours of time. By the time you are 40-50, I definitely believe that internally, 99%+ of people cannot justify the expenditure of time and effort it takes to be really good. I was quite strong when I was young. Now, I just get bored with the game and am definitely weaker. I can’t justify squandering the time.
Upthread, you are advised by another poster to study tactics. While I think you cannot be without that knowledge, I also think you have to study openings, positional chess, and endgames and get a feel for what types of games the top say dozen openings lead to.
The various Reinfeld books are terrific, and as I said, you cannot not know that stuff, traps and burns and swindles, but those books really do not delve too deeply into positional-type, more modern positions. Which are frankly much more dense and generally less fun.
And endgames...are a very rarefied study all in themselves. If you are very good at endgames, you can get by playing “draw” chess and working towards winning endgames. With a few notable exceptions, this was the Russian postwar modus operandi, and they dominated for many years. If all you know is swindles and traps, a good player will practically never allow you to spring them and you will expend energy, position, and material working (in vain) to spring them. Leaving your throat wide open for a good endgame opponent.
I played a lot in high school, early ‘60’s. I still have Reinfeld’s book on queen pawn openings.
Jimmy Baldwin and I used to play at his house after school. I remember he fell into one of the traps discussed in the book. We each shouted “Ha!” after our move, until he discovered he was down a piece.
When did they change chess notation? I couldn’t get into when I tried to take it up again.