@ace1886 My friend, you are not inadequate. We all have things that we can learn from one another :)
This is a good chunk of the introduction from my guide:
It is widely regarded that becoming 2000 is an incredible feat. The United States Chess Federation even states that one who attains this rating is in the top 5% of all players. This often scares off a lot of people trying to achieve this rating because they feel that 2000 is some magical level that separates geniuses from the average person. I am here to tell you all that this is a very big misconception in its entirety. Anyone can become 2000 without even training that much.
However, those who want it must possess two important attributes. First, they must be very passionate about improving. Without this passion, it is very tough, even for the most talented people, to experience rapid improvement over any period of time. The second thing that anyone must have is an open mind. Unfortunately, too many people spend their time working on the wrong parts of their game, and subsequently become frustrated when they have little or no improvement to show for it. Don’t get me wrong, every part of chess is important. But dumping all of your time into opening theory won’t yield as much of a return as what many of you may feel.
Many players have often told me about how players such as Botvinnik and Kasparov were able to champion various opening repertoires to beat their opponents into submission. Although this does have a lot of truth to it, there are many points to those playstyles that people often tend to overlook. Both of their styles rely on very complicated, dynamic positions that enable the better calculator or the better prepared player to emerge as a victor. Here is where most people claim that the better prepared player will win, and therefore, they must dump all of their time into opening theory. Yet, what these players often forget is that these two legends have almost an unconscious competence for the openings they are playing. They have played so many positions in those openings that their understanding of the situations that could arise is so much more profound that any opening preparation can ever bestow upon anyone ever. Kasparov, for example, had been playing the Sicilian Najdorf since the tender age of 7. His developments to theory in this opening came only years later.
So indeed, players who want to reach 2000 will need to be determined and open-minded. However, the good news is that once those qualities are embedded into who you are, you possess all of the important core components that it takes to become a 2000 rated player. Everything else truly is just icing on the cake.
The process of becoming a 2000 should be fun and gradual. As much as I hate to tell you this, it won’t happen overnight. For some of you it will take a year. For others it will take slightly longer. It all depends on the amount of time and effort that you put in. Obviously a player who studies the game for 4-5 hours a week will trump a player who looks at the occasional article. That’s not magic, it is just the fundamental nature of hard work. However, to achieve a 2000 rating, the core component you truly need is the drive.