Hi. My question(s) are about the FM, GM and IM titles. There is also a Candidate Master but I have not come across one yet. Relatively new to this or any online chess for that matter. I just played against Chess Titans.

Anywho, I did a quick wiki on those titles and it's all about ELO rating. How do people get such titles beside their name? Do I have to play OTB to get any sort of title or can it all be done online? Also, what is ELO. Lol.

Thanks for answering my novice questions. I'm sure I will have more in the future.

Nope, title not question.

Elo is a formula used to calculate ratings... well first it was a guy :p

So Elo is informal, usually you'd talk about FIDE (international), USCF (united states), BCF (british), that sort of thing... I think Canada is CFC?  For example you'd say "My FIDE is 2348 and I'm an FM"  (I'm not, this is just an example )  Or "My USCF is 1540" (also called a class C player).  I believe all of these federations, as well as online sites, use the Elo formula (with slight adjustments here and there).

You get a title by playing nationally (or FIDE) rated events.  As a participant you'll be a paying member of the national/international federation and the tournament will have a certified director / arbiter running the show.  Some titles like master are given based on rating alone.  To be a GM you have to earn grandmaster norms (in short you have to preform at grandmaster level in games against other grandmasters).

Titles cannot be earned online.

On this site you get a title by your name by letting chess.com know you have a title.

I will actually be helpful but only because you're a hockey fan.

Titles like IM (International Master) and GM (Grandmaster) are official FIDE titles obtained by having a certain rating plus "norms" which means doing well in tournaments with lots of tough players (exact formula unknown to me). NM and CM are less official but you still have to be very, very good.

There are other titles which you can obtain online. For instance, I am a BM (Bongcloud Mastir).

NM and CM are equally official.  They're just not as good.

And btw hockey is one of the lamest excuses for being helpful I've ever heard.

Awesome! Thanks for the clarification. Also, what is the average age of people who become even the lowest level of master, I'm assuming that would be candidate master.

Nope, CM is FIDE/international, NM is national.

What do you know? Are you a NM or something?

Fee Master.

Forage Master

Fend-for-himself Master