Road to Grandmaster

[Michael Jones]

I think I could get the title easily enough, if I were to play the tournaments in the right sort of country under the right sort of 'officials'

And pay the right amount of entry money, you mean? Actually I did hear a rumour about someone buying themself an IM title...

Wasn't there some 'GM' a few years ago who was stripped of his title after someone noticed that it had been acquired solely in tournaments that he'd arranged himself, when in fact he was nowhere near GM strength?

There are companies advertising on eBay etc. which claim to be able to sell you any title - Lord or Lady are their more usual line but I'm sure you could get GM at a push

I think if someone set me FM in 5 years @ 25/1 , id consider lumping alot on then just doing chess. Say 4-5 on or something.

I think you've stumbled upon a new source of funding for the ECF. The Board gives odds of certain players to achieve certain titles.

If the player wins, then the ECF has a stronger player in return for its investment.
If the ECF wins, then the ECF gets money.

What can possibly go wrong?

As with most things, the only way to find out what can go wrong is by trying it

[Arshad Ali]

There are companies advertising on eBay etc. which claim to be able to sell you any title - Lord or Lady are their more usual line but I'm sure you could get GM at a push.

Only FIDE can award the title. These other titles you mention are probably like this one here:

http://www.sealandgov.org/Titles.html

for this "state":

http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&q=se ... CDcQsAQwAw

(I'm a fervent supporter of Sealand myself.)

[Matt Mackenzie]

Michael, IIRC it is the Romanian "GM" Alexandru Crisan you are referring to.......

The worst part of it is, he apparently got his title reinstated on "appeal"

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I also don't think he has a snowball's chance in hell. But to be constructive, how exactly should he train, what books should he use? Where exactly is he right now in terms of technique, repertoire, and knowledge of the game? Start maybe with Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual? What about for tactics and for analysis of variations? How about Jacobs' Analyse to Win?

I just bought a copy of 'The Improving Chess Thinker' (2009) by Dan Heisman, which looks interesting (it expands on the seminal work done by Adriaan de Groot in 'Thought and Choice in Chess' (1965) on players verbalising the reasons for their moves). He mentions 'Inside the Chess Mind' (2004) by Jacob Aagaard as a similar work, but aimed at more advanced players. The basic thesis, though, is that by examining the thought processes (and errors) of various classes of players, you can improve to the next class by looking at the differences and modifying the way you think (in theory, anyway). The idea of thinking like a grandmaster is not new of course, with 'Think Like a Grandmaster' (1971) by Kotov, but how easy is it really to train yourself to adopt new ways of thinking and to really start to think like a grandmaster?

[Michael Jones]

There are companies advertising on eBay etc. which claim to be able to sell you any title - Lord or Lady are their more usual line but I'm sure you could get GM at a push.

Only FIDE can award the title. These other titles you mention are probably like this one here:

http://www.sealandgov.org/Titles.html

for this "state":

http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&q=se ... CDcQsAQwAw

(I'm a fervent supporter of Sealand myself.)

Similarly, only the British monarch can award peerages, but that doesn't stop companies trying to sell them.

Michael, IIRC it is the Romanian "GM" Alexandru Crisan you are referring to.......

The worst part of it is, he apparently got his title reinstated on "appeal"

Having just googled it, I find that the ruling was thus:

"1) Mr. Alexandru Crisan’s rating be revoked and he shall no longer be listed in the rating list, with the exception of the results obtained in the Vidmar Memorial.

2) Mr. Alexandru Crisan’s titles of International Grandmaster (GM) and International Master (IM) be revoked.

3) The case be referred to the FIDE Ethics Committee, for possible breach of the FIDE Code of Ethics."

He's currently listed on the FIDE site as a GM with a rating of 2588, so either the decision was reversed or it was never enforced in the first place.

Relevant to this discussion, Zurab Azmaiparashvili had this to say on the Crisan case:

"In my opinion, it is not possible to evaluate the strength of a chess player based on the results of one tournament. However, in the Widmar memorial in Portoros GM A.Crisan has not demonstrated his chess strength in any game. It was clear that his opponents were much stronger than him. GM A.Crisan has shown no single game with his own style. It is clear that he has made some computer preparations, and knows the openings, but in the middle game, he was gradually losing his position.

I cannot judge what is the real thing. Judging by the results of this tournament, it is clear that he does not deserve the rating of 2600, or 2500, or even 2400. If GM A.Crisan had trained on a regular basis, he could have reached the level between 2400 to 2500. But it is possible for any chess player, who has even little chess talent, to reach this level, during the present times, provided a person works properly. "

[Jonathan Bryant]

Relevant to this discussion, Zurab Azmaiparashvili had this to say on the Crisan case ... But it is possible for any chess player, who has even little chess talent, to reach this level, during the present times, provided a person works properly.

... of course it helps if you're prepared to take back losing moves and then play better ones like he did.

[Ola Winfridsson]

To be perfectly honest, I think that Will Taylor has set himself an exceedingly difficult task, and I'm inclined towards Ben Purton's view regarding snowballs, chances and hell. Having said that, all the best of luck!

Ernie Lazenby mentions that Mihai Suba started playing chess at the age of 21 and still managed to clinch the grandmaster title. This, I think, says a lot about Suba's innate talent. Who knows what he'd been capable of he'd started playing aged 10-12 or even as late as age 15? The Swedish GM Erik Lundin (1924-88) started playing at a club at the age of 20 and still made it. However, he had played chess for some time before that (which I suspect Suba had as well). I remember Tiger Hillarp, now a GM, saying that he didn't start playing at a club until he was 15, but he'd playing at home for a couple of years and he was around E1500 strength when he joined a club. As late as age 22 or 23 he was "only" around E2250-E2300, and was even contemplating giving up the game completely.

Many people have already touched on the fact that it's not the first part of the journey that is the hard part, it's those last 200-300 points which are by far the hardest. I remember speaking to a Finnish IM, rated E2425 or so, and asking him whether he'd be pushing for the GM title soon. He said, no, it's so much hard work and I'm not even sure I'll make it.

Looking at Will's development curve so far, it seems to me that he's got an awful lot of hard work to put in, and the constraints he's put on his own effort to make GM status will prevent him from doing that.

[Roger de Coverly]

Looking at Will's development curve so far, it seems to me that he's got an awful lot of hard work to put in,

From the annotated games on the website, I would say he's got to improve his knowledge and feel of some basic chess patterns. You shouldn't really need to spend half your available time just setting up a normal looking Bh6,g4, h4 punt against the Dragon. It was an interesting idea against an Accelerated Dragon to play the Bishop to c4, then drop the Knight back from d4 to b3 and park the Bishop back on e2. I don't know how well it works, but even 2100 players like myself would have researched it with a database and chess engine before the game.

[Ola Winfridsson]

Looking at Will's development curve so far, it seems to me that he's got an awful lot of hard work to put in,

From the annotated games on the website, I would say he's got to improve his knowledge and feel of some basic chess patterns. You shouldn't really need to spend half your available time just setting up a normal looking Bh6,g4, h4 punt against the Dragon. It was an interesting idea against an Accelerated Dragon to play the Bishop to c4, then drop the Knight back from d4 to b3 and park the Bishop back on e2. I don't know how well it works, but even 2100 players like myself would have researched it with a database and chess engine before the game.

Yes, I agree. Someone also suggested that Will should study a number of games by past masters, to get a more thorough grounding, which would at least partly go towards remedying that.

[Will Taylor]

From the annotated games on the website, I would say he's got to improve his knowledge and feel of some basic chess patterns. You shouldn't really need to spend half your available time just setting up a normal looking Bh6,g4, h4 punt against the Dragon. It was an interesting idea against an Accelerated Dragon to play the Bishop to c4, then drop the Knight back from d4 to b3 and park the Bishop back on e2. I don't know how well it works, but even 2100 players like myself would have researched it with a database and chess engine before the game.

Not possible, as I didn't know who I'd be playing. I didn't know any book lines against the Accelerated Dragon, other than the fact that Maroczy Bind and Bc4/Nc3 setups were possible. Clearly my book knowledge needs to be improved, as does every other aspect of my game.

[Roger de Coverly]

Not possible, as I didn't know who I'd be playing.

Even for a county match shouldn't the prospective GM:-

(a) turn up 15-20 minutes before the start time with a shoulder bag containing a laptop.
(b) badger the match captains to find out the pairings
(c) avoid help set up
(d) find a quiet corner to do a quick check with the laptop on the opponent's likely openings and playing style.

In practice most non-GMs content themselves by asking team-mates if they know anything about the opponent. Sometimes just knowing the grade is almost enough.

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

I understand now how you beat me last time we played. You clearly spent hours studying my games beforehand.

[Roger de Coverly]

I understand now how you beat me last time we played. You clearly spent hours studying my games beforehand.

Our most recent game was a draw in a Closed Sicilian. There is a point about prior knowledge though, that I used a defensive idea I recall studying whilst at university not long after it had been played in the Reshevsky-Korchnoi Candidates match of 1969. I think you need to know these things, or ideas of equivalent value, in order to play at 2100 level, never mind 400 points higher.

[Ola Winfridsson]

I understand now how you beat me last time we played. You clearly spent hours studying my games beforehand.

Our most recent game was a draw in a Closed Sicilian. There is a point about prior knowledge though, that I used a defensive idea I recall studying whilst at university not long after it had been played in the Reshevsky-Korchnoi Candidates match of 1969. I think you need to know these things, or ideas of equivalent value, in order to play at 2100 level, never mind 400 points higher.

Didn't Lev Polugayevsky claim that intuition at least partly is a question of having played over old grandmaster games and assimilating ideas in them? I remember clinching the win in a game as a junior where I was able to employ a motif from a game between Vera Menchik and Gideon Ståhlberg: something along the lines of white having Qc2, Nb3 and black having Pc3, Rc8 and Qb6 - black forces the win by ...Qxb3, Qxb3 c2. The only difference was that Miss Menchik missed it and Ståhlberg was able to salvage a draw.

[Michael Jones]

Oh, and learn the Philidor mate (WQ somewhere on the a2-g8 diagonal, WNf7, BKg8, BR somewhere on the back rank, BP g7 and h7): Nh6+ Kh8 Qg8+ Rxg8 Nf7#. It won't occur very often, but it looks flashy and it'll impress any opponent who hasn't seen it before.