I had a similar experience. I was a strong contender for the US West amateur championship for a few years. But once I got good enough to spend most of my thinki

I had a similar experience. I was a strong contender for the US West amateur championship for a few years. But once I got good enough to spend most of my thinking time on positional concerns things stopped being a game and started being a huge database to memorize. I would spend my free time analyzing my games for weaknesses in my strategy, and practiced speed problem solving using giant books of tactical problems. Everybody serious about chess hits the point of diminishing returns per unit of studying, and I believe that the "good" players are the people who can ignore the impossibility of their task and keep studying anyway. There are probably better solutions to the problem of diminishing returns than quitting cold turkey, (the solution I chose) but I'm convinced my experiences with chess have made me a much better programmer. Looking ahead at the consequences of my actions, being able to look for oddball solutions to impossible situations, never giving up, and occasionally memorizing established solutions are all things I'm appreciative to chess for teaching me.