Don’t play to win is the trick. Learn from your failures, because in chess they are your failures. 99/100 times you lose because you screwed up and that says something about you. That 1 out of 100 is when you have a very good game but the other party as well, those most likely end in a draw.

What helped me improve was doing a lot of puzzles, these help with pattern recognition. I don’t necessarily know openings by heart, but I try (emphasis on try) to keep myself to the ccao (check, capture, attack or optimize) strategy for each move. This means looking at the board to see what changed with the move of the opponent. Maybe some square is now weak and you can exploit that if you cannot check, capture or attack.

In the end, chess is largely a game against yourself. Just play and learn.