Don't worry this is a quite common feeling among chess players.
Maybe you´re wasting hours studying and playing... do you have the best software, do you have a lot of chess books ( Kasparov, Dvoretsky among others )and you're feeling as stagned as when you haven't started to study. How it's possible?
In my oppinion chess players are very smart, but somehow they don't have discipline.
I have a friend that started to study 06 different openings in the last year. Do you really believe that he have learned well at least one of then? Nope.
So let's start from the beggining.
A lot of theory ( from books or softwares for example )are not enought to make you stronger.
You need to LEARN from what do you read, you need to APPLY in your games what have you seen.
And this demands a lot of work and discipline.
So one of biggest problems to every chess player aming for improvement is the accumulation of pointless knowledge which doesn’t help them to play better.
Quite simple. In chess Less is more. Or as GM Peter Svidler likes to says ''KISS principle '', a.k.a.'' Keep Instead Simple Stupid ''.
So, knowledge is not the only thing necessary to be a strong player, it is only a part. The second part, which is even more important, is your thinking process, how to apply this knowledge, because there is a big difference between knowing something and being able to apply it in practice.
My first chess lesson is: Be focused in learn something really well. Don't waste your time and money. Saves energy and be open to forget your previous knowledge, to be able to learn what really matters.
In the next classes I'll be showing what this means and how to apply in practice.
By now I'll give you a simple diagram with a basic position.
Try to write down what is white's best answer and why.
White plays
