The 3 Key Qualities of Grandmasters

'How do I become a Grandmaster?'

That's a common question in the chess circles, right? Well, the more common phrasing of the question is 'How did you become a chess Grandmaster?'. But many of us (including myself, in the past) asked this question to pick up some good ideas on how to improve, and role model the way by following those who already reached the level we desire.

By asking enough Grandmasters (and working with them as a student), I was able to develop a model of the skills I needed to hone to achieve my dream of becoming a Grandmaster. The direct feedback also allowed me to bridge the gap between my current level of understanding and that of a Grandmaster, back then.

If we do all the things that Grandmaster do or did consistently over a long period of time, then chances are, we will eventually get the same results as them, right? 

That's a very good foundation on which to base your improvement journey, but it's not the full story.

There's also the WAY in which we go about learning and improving. That's what I will focus on in this blog post.

In my experience, there are the three key qualities of Grandmasters, that separate them from most other chess players. 

1. Engagement

What do we mean by engagement?

For me, engagement is when I am completely absorbed and focused in my work - what athletes would typically describe as 'flow'. Put more simply, it means being 'in the moment' or 'in the zone'. When I am playing a chess game, I am completely focused on the current position. When I am solving a chess puzzle, I am completely focused on solving that position. When I am reading a chess book, I am completely focused on following and understanding the material. 

Without this kind of focus, it will be hard to learn effectively, and indeed, a lack of concentration is one of the main reasons why players either blunder during a game, or don't get the results they're looking for from their chess training. 

This kind of focus, and the other characteristics I mention, can be continually trained and improved. I'm sure you already have a few ideas, from my description, of how you could improve your engagement. 

These 3 characteristics are not limited to chess, either, and can be applied across other arenas of life, though in this post I'll only be discussing them from a chess perspective. 

2. Joy

You already know what joy is, but how does it relate to chess? 

From eight years of age, I was very passionate about chess - it went from being a hobby to something that I loved, and constantly tried to practice and learn more about. When I was studying chess, learning how to win more chess games became more of a secondary (external) motivation for me, and my internal love for chess and curiosity to learn more and appreciate the game deeper was more powerful. 

That may explain why a lot of my early junior rivals stopped playing chess when they weren't winning tournaments anymore. I also had many times where I realized that I still had a lot to learn before I was strong enough to win tournaments, but the difference was that my love of chess and interest to learn more kept me going when motivation alone wasn't enough.

Later on, I realized that joy is even more than passion - it's also a conscious choice, in this moment, to be happy and to find pleasure in whatever we are doing at that time. Indeed, we can choose our response to the situation, and our feelings about it. If we understand chess improvement to be a long-term process - a journey with its own challenges, triumphs and setbacks along the way - we're a lot less frustrated when we appear to be moving further away from our destination.

3. Confidence

The other skill that greatly helped me to become a Grandmaster was my confidence - I had absolute conviction, from a young age, that I would become a Grandmaster. 

I still remember that, as a junior in Australia, I wasn't the first person most people thought of, when asked about who would be the first GM of our generation. There was always someone who was higher-rated than me or who had many more tournament wins or titles under their belt. 

Even in 2011, when I had taken a 'gap year' (a year's break in the transition between high school and university) to focus on chess, quite a few Australian teenagers had already become International Masters, whereas I was still a FIDE Master.

However, the main difference for me was that, in 2012, I absolutely committed to becoming a Grandmaster, setting everything else aside. From that point on, every single action I took was from the perspective of 'how can I improve my chess and become a Grandmaster'? 

Once I made all my actions congruent with my big dream of the GM title (no school/university distractions), things started to come together. And as I saw the improvement in my play and results, my confidence continued to grow and I picked up more and more momentum. By 2014, I had achieved my 2nd GM Norm and raised by FIDE rating to nearly 2500. In 2015, I broke the 2500 FIDE 'ceiling' and in December 2015, I attained my final GM Norm (with 2 rounds to spare) to complete the requirements for the GM title!

The lesson behind this story is that confidence is a skill that can be trained and improved - concretely, by improving our skills (increasing competence) and consistency, making sure our actions are congruent with our goals and our values. 

In short - the key 3 qualities of Grandmasters are:

1. Engagement
2. Joy
3. Confidence

Interestingly, most Grandmasters (including myself in the past) have typically stated that 'Persistence' (or some variation of it, like 'perseverance', 'hard work' or 'discipline') is the main thing that made them a Grandmaster. 

Indeed, I mentioned before that my commitment to becoming a Grandmaster played a very significant role in achieving this lofty goal. 

However, I'm sure you know some chess players who worked extremely hard, but still aren't Grandmasters, right? Furthermore, there are several young players who became Grandmasters while in their early teens.

It is clear that the amount of time put into chess work is just one factor. The quality, or effectiveness, of that work, is also very important. 

Certainly, becoming a Grandmaster is not possible without putting a lot of work in, but in my experience, it's not the most distinguishing factor that separates 'good' players from 'great' players. 

Furthermore, the three key characteristics I mentioned integrate well with this disciplined, hard work. 

It's hard for us to fully engage with our chess if we don't understand why it's important for us to improve (what's the reward for us in becoming a chess master?). 

Many people have a dream of becoming a Grandmaster, but along the way, there are a lot of challenges and frustrations, as we have to not only improve our chess skills, but grow ourselves as a person, to become a Grandmaster. When we let our frustration or focus on results dominate our thoughts around chess, the joy starts to erode (at least, in my experience).

Finally, you can have an ambitious goal for chess mastery, but without true belief that it is possible for you, you will instinctively hold back, and not do the more challenging 'deliberate practice' (where one receives clear feedback on the learning process) necessary to improve more quickly. You'll refuse opportunities to learn faster, because even if you have a big goal, without the confidence to back it up, you'll believe that the opportunity 'won't work for me' (for some reason). 

I've come to these conclusions from many, many years of experience, and I'd love to hear your experiences as well.

What qualities do you consider to be important for chess mastery? 

What's something you could do differently to improve your engagement, joy and confidence in chess? 

One thing you could do is click here and join my FREE email list, with daily GM lessons and tips. 

See you in the next post, Chess Improvers!