English Chess Forum

Hello All,

I thought I might aswell hear people's views on this, I always wanted to be a GM ever since I started playing chess which is just under 3 years, started when I was 15 now 18.

I can not imagine the amount of hours I have put into chess, probably less than the rule which I believe is 10,000 hours.

But if I now decided to get a professional chess coach, and start studying hard, and using all the resources I have can I hit my goals, or is it too late now I am 18.

My third ECF grade is 156 slowplay

Rapid 161.

If I can't get my goals should I carry on?

Would like to hear peoples views.
Matt.

It's probably achievable, but not easy.

If anyone puts the effort in, I think they can improve their grade by at least 10 points a year. So you could get to over 200 in five years. After that, as others have said, it becomes much, much harder. Probably another 5 years for each extra ten points upwards. And you do need to have the innate talent to keep pushing upwards. I would say you should aim for 2200 first, and then see where you can go from there.

I am taking all comments on board.

matt

You also said "If I can't get my goals should I carry on?". My response would be that people should play chess for a reason other than to reach a rating goal. There is no reason why improving your rating shouldn't be one goal, but it shouldn't be the only one. Me, I play chess because I enjoy it and the hope that one day I will play a real masterpiece of a game.

But do all people play because they enjoy it!

I Wouldn't be so sure. I for one do not just play because I enjoy it, it annoys me alot when I don't find mostly best moves.

Or if I throw away an advantageous position. Even if it is barely anything. I always annotate my games, and nowadays I am extremely critical about my games.

Matt.

Oh, I look at my games in Fritz and get depressed when my "masterpiece" is shown to be flawed. But realising that humans don't play perfect chess is part of the attraction, in some ways. Both you and your opponents will make mistakes, but the aim is to try and anticipate or identify them, and avoid your own mistakes and take advantage of your opponent's mistakes. Easier said than done, though!

matt_ward wrote:But do all people play because they enjoy it!

I presume that all or almost all amateur players do; some GMs and IMs may play partly because they get paid to do so, but one presumes they still enjoy it or they wouldn't have put in the years of effort required to get to that level in the first place. I'd say the point you stop enjoying it is the point at which you should stop playing - yes, at times it can be frustrating if you have a particularly bad game, but it's the moments of frustration that make the moments of success the more enjoyable; beating a player graded 50 higher than you with a stunning queen sac would, I suspect, cease to be quite so enjoyable if you did it in every game (I say 'suspect' because I'm never likely to get the chance to find out).

Michael I get the point! But if you take the game serious, can you really enjoy not being as good as you had wanted to achieve I find this bit hard to understand.

Matt.