What is the first step to becoming a NM?!

Hi everyone, I have not been playing chess seriously for that long and my goal is to become a NM. What do you suggest is the best first step that i should take to getting there? 

Feedback would be really great! :) 

Getting better at chess might also help, I think.

Only real titles are FIDE titles!

I would like to become a CM someday.

First step from what point?

Start at the bottom, work hard for years amd maybe your dream will come true. Of course those 25/2600 rated players will make your chess game look bad..... enjoy the game and by all means follow your dreams.

My starting point would be a rating of about 1500. I do tactics allllllll the time. I was wondering if it was better to study famous games or book openings. Stuff of that sort. :)

if you do tactics as much as you say you will fail to cross 1800 you need to take a break from tactics and get into startegy/intuition

You can't achieve OTB titles on the internet. Join a club, play some tournaments, get a rating. Until you've completed those steps, the rest is poppycock.

To improve your chess, the most important thing is to increase your UNDERSTANDING of all parts of the game. For the opening, not only some lines but also the ideas you are trying to implement/prevent. In the middlegame, know what to do based upon the situation (it takes a lot of study, but can be learned). In the endgame, understand the rules and guidelines (MUCH more than "passed pawns must be pushed," things like "to convert a one pawn advantage, best is to have the minor piece opposite your opponent's). Work hard, and you can get there. Ok, I'm only a Candidate Master and not a National Master yet, but still I had to make five 2200+ performances to get my CM title.

The first step would be to take part in an OTB tournament : there are no titles for Internet players, and there has never been any player who became a NM by training only

You will also have fun (otb at club/tournaments I mean).  Nurturing motivation counts quite a bit when the road is long.

I'd set an intermediate goal or two also. Try 1600 as your first with a thought to 1650 a bit after that.

1500 OTB would be a reasonable first goal on your road -

Since You are here You already did the first step, keep going 10.000 more steps

e4

This is silly. You can make master on basically studying only tactics and playing simple openings. Class A players and experts still miss simple tactics at a reasonable rate. It sometimes occurs even higher than that, but seems to drop off much more once you cross 2200-2300.

iFrancisco wrote:

manikcharan wrote:

if you do tactics as much as you say you will fail to cross 1800 you need to take a break from tactics and get into startegy/intuition

This is silly. You can make master on basically studying only tactics and playing simple openings. Class A players and experts still miss simple tactics at a reasonable rate. It sometimes occurs even higher than that, but seems to drop off much more once you cross 2200-2300.

I see this advice a lot, and I'm not disagreeing, but when you say "simple" openings, can you give a few exaples? I mean openings that CAN be played till 2200-2300.

All openings (except that fried something or other one) can be played to 2200-2300.

You might wait a while for an authoritative answer to your question. If you are willing to settle for an unauthoritative answer "simple" does not so much mean specific openings it means that you need a little bit of understanding of the openings you play but not an encyclopaedic knowledge. The best place to begin acquiring the little bit of knowledge is in your own games. The best way to choose which openings to play (I think) is to consult your tastes. You are looking for the ones you like.

Received wisdom on these boards is that you should choose sharper openings to advance quicker - so e4 mostly.  This gets you into tactics quicker experience of which is said to be the touchstone to success.  I have my doubts. I like positional play so I play openings which get me into less sharp, sometimes closed positions (mostly d4). Thing is, my games do not lack for tactics.  They may come a bit slower but are still instructive. And meanwhile I get to play with the comfort that comes from playing the sort of positions I like.

As long as it isn't completely bad, you can play just about anything for a while. When I mean simple I mean lines that aren't drenched with theory like the Open Ruy Lopez or some Sicilian lines. I think of a typical Reti/Catalan setup as being relatively simple as white and something like the Modern or Pirc as black (note: I don't play any of these so I could be wrong about the amount of theory there).

My general point is that tactics can take you pretty far. When I made NM some years ago (I feel old saying that!) it was mostly on tactics because it is what I found fascinating to study as a kid. My opening repretoire was still very basic and, admittedly, probably still is today compared to other masters. All you need is to do is to get to an even (or close to equal) middlegame and outplay your opponent from there.

the problem with only doing tactics is that if there are no tactics then your playing strength drops to a good player rather than rising to NM. you have to be a jack of all trades and ace of few rather than ace of one.

Currently, my study is focusing on endgames and tactics and i have had many good draws and wins against very strong players in town here that a few months ago would have been crushing losses.

Am I on my way to being an NM? Not hardly. I only play a few different openings as either White or Black, and those I encounter that I play very rarely, I only play to the ideas of the position. I would need to study more opening theory likely and probably incorporate more 1. d4 and 1. Nf3 openings as White and learn some different opening schemes as Black before I could jump that high. However, against Class B/A players and some Experts, I do well against them in OTB play.

Now blitz....that is another story.