English Chess Forum

This item has just appeared on ChessBase

Road to Grandmaster
08.10.2010 – Can a 21-year-old Class A player become a grandmaster on command? Will Taylor of Bridgwater, UK, rated around 1900, believes he can. The English bookmakers William Hill believe he can't and offered odds of 25:1 against it happening. Taylor has wagered £200 with them, with a potential return of £5,000. We will be helping him along and tracking his progress.

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6725

Personally I don't think he has a snowball's chance in hell of making it, particularly under the conditions he has set himself. Odds of 100/1 would be more reasonable. What do others think?

http://grading.bcfservices.org.uk/getre ... ef=242872G

No, absolutely no chance whatsoever.

Not being funny, £200, is a Henry and 3 Bottles of Champagne.....What a waste.

Good luck to the lad.

This kind of thing filters down to the press and chess gets some publicity.
I am putting £2.00 on him tomorrow at Willie Hills. (so he's doomed).

(I wonder if he changed his name by deed to 'I am a Grandmaster' WH would pay up).

Depreciation bets like this are massive EV for bookie

aka say he does it in 20 years, u effectively got less than evens.

Andy Burnett wrote:Personally I don't think he has a snowball's chance in hell of making it, particularly under the conditions he has set himself. Odds of 100/1 would be more reasonable. What do others think?

I think your odds are missing at least two, and perhaps three, zeros.

This thread is rather tragic. He's being written off at the grand old age of 21.

I wouldn't back myself at 25-1.

I have just seen some of his games. All I will say is that after a hard long search I found a win v a 118 and a draw v Adams in a simul.

He did acually win v a 150 from Darlo chess club on wed night but lets just say he got lucky as our player miscalculated

Good luck to him is all that I can add! It would be pretty amazing if he can achieve it.

Gavin Strachan wrote:I have just seen some of his games. All I will say is that after a hard long search I found a win v a 118 and a draw v Adams in a simul.

It can't have been a very 'hard long search', as a recent win against a 162 is posted on my site.

This is just frankly ridiculous.

Why does anyone pay the slightest attention to such p.sh?

Look, 25,000 to one would make just as much sense. If he got such odds, he could probably do a good deal in Burma or Vietnam.

The kid has been watching too much X Factor.

No doubt he will get some bob a job on the back of the cable box, three week's infamy in the News of the Screws and then will be dragged in front of a viewing audience for the next forty years as the grandmaster that never quite made it.

Whatever suits his sense of dignity.

In the meantime, don't mind if I blow a raspberry out of my a*se.

Alex Holowczak wrote:This thread is rather tragic. He's being written off at the grand old age of 21.

He's not being written off, it's just that most of us appreciate how strong Grandmaster level is.

If he got rid of the girlfriend, perhaps he'd have a chance.

By the way, I'd appreciate it if someone who understands Paul McKeown posts could PM me the meaning of "p.sh".

I wonder how many players graded 152 have been featured on chessbase?
I wonder if Will has been featured in the local press?
I wonder how many people have visited his website?
Perhaps Will is planning to write a book about becoming a Grandmaster, or many one about how to generate a lot of publicity for £200. Perhaps he isn't so silly after all.