On Mastery: How long does it take to become a Grandmaster?
Introduction
Mastery according to Merriam-Webster means the possession or display of great skill or technique in an activity.
Have you always wondered how one gains mastery over a skill? When you observe a master practicing his craft, the display of his superior command of the activity, the simplicity in place, and their ability to adapt to circumstances as they present themselves, it becomes difficult to hide one’s admiration at such sights.
Nevertheless, in this piece of writing, we shall focus our efforts on “Chess”, history’s beloved game.
Throughout the years of human involvement with the game of chess, we have witnessed many masters come and go, from Giovanni Leonardo to Gioachino Greco to Philidor Francois to Paul Morphy to Bobby Fischer to Magnus Carlsen, and several other masters throughout the ages. However, the main question we shall concern ourself with for the moment is “What are the learning & playing requirements needed to attain the Grandmaster level, and how long does it take?
The Three Core Elements of Chess
Firstly, the game of chess has 3 core elements to it, namely;
- Visualization (The ability to see)
- Calculation (The ability to think). This is generally divided into:
- Tactics (the ability to act short term)
- Strategy (The ability to act long term).
- Evaluation (The ability to judge).
In the process towards attaining mastery, Chess players consistently need to improve their abilities in each of these elements and adapt accordingly in each phase of the game. The ability to do this well is what differentiates the master from the amateur or the amateur from the beginner. Their levels in each of these elements differ greatly.
Furthermore, after laying the groundwork for the core learning foundations, we shall now delve into the main body of our work for which we all embarked on in reading this writing piece.
Historical Data: The Timeline to Grandmaster
In this part, we shall lay down ideas, drawing from historical charts of the period of time it took famous masters to attain the rank of Grandmasters, right from the time they started playing Chess.
We shall observe the following players:
- Bobby Fischer
- Gary Kasparov
- Magnus Carlsen
- Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa
- Wei Yi
- Wesley So
- Abhimanyu Mishra
- Fabiano Caruana
- Sergey Karjakin
- Erdogmus Yagiz Kaan
- Vincent Keymer
- Alireza Firouzja
Data sourced from https://www.ratings.fide.com
The data shows how the length period during which some of the greatest, most talented and hardworking chess players ever, reached Grand master status.
Key Findings
- The Fastest: Sergey Karjakin holds the record for the fastest time from starting chess to becoming a Grandmaster.
- The Average: Among these great players, the average time to reach Grandmaster status is 10 years.
- Commencing from the day you start playing chess, if you keep at it consistently, learning & playing in the ideal manner, rating progression should follow this pattern:
- Year 1 - 3 (0 - 1500)
- Year 4 - 5 (1500 - 2000)
- Year 6 - 7 (2000 - 2200)
- Year 7 - 10 (2200 - 2500) GM status should be achieved in the 10th year.
*Rating are based on FIDE standards not online.
Now let's explore the learning & playing requirements deeply.
- Learning Requirements
Deep research has revealed that the learning requirements as it relates to the elements, demand an understanding of key theories & then majorly the solving of exercises.
Note: The Standard ideal progression is only achieved when the rating strength of the exercises being solved is personalized to the learner's rating.
What do I mean by this?
For example, If you're a 2000 rated player, it is advisable to solve exercises between 1750 - 2250. It's like going to the gym, if the actual dumbbell you can carry is 10kg, attempting to lift 30kg dumbbells would do you no good, and you might as well embarrass yourself in front of the pretty ladies around.
Personal Experience
I experienced the most growth in rating gains from (1700 – 2200) between mid 2018 to late 2021 after learning in the same ideal manner.
Furthermore, the question you most likely have is “How can you gain access to exercises built for your level? Also, when I mean exercises, I refer to exercises tailored to the elements, and the phases of the game. There are several out there and you have to compile and structure them properly. The only disadvantage is that majority of the learning resources are generic, which would lead to a somewhat slow progression with some lack of direction. This is why acquiring a good Coach is vital, they do the major work of helping you collate, structure and personalize the exercises for the lessons that are tailored to your level.
- Playing requirements.
Similar to the learning requirements, the playing requirements demand the same personalized balance. It is advisable to play people 250 points below your level or 250 points above your level. This helps to build gradual progression.
Meanwhile for many of you that are not active professional tournament players, my guess is that the question majority of you have is that is it necessary to go out there and play active tournament games to be able to attain the Grand master level?
I am currently neutral about this question. The more I engage with Artificial Intelligence technologies, my thesis is that it can be simulated. This is all I can say for now.
The Future of Skill Acquisition
Lastly, given that we have laid the ground work for this, I would like to draw parallels to other fields. Firstly, Chess is one of the very few fields of human skill where progress & skill is actively measured and quantified. This is highly important because when we draw parallels to other skills, we derive insights into the demands and time needed to attain mastery.
Currently, the question that bugs me is:
Is it possible to reduce the time needed to attain mastery by half?
When we observe how advancements in GPU chips were able to accelerate computational workloads, the human brain, my brain, begins to ask questions if we can accelerate our learning process too.
Achieving this would mean two things:
- Major advances in human intelligence
- Major advances in human development.
About Laddr
This problem is at the core of our existence at Laddr, and we believe it is an interesting problem to solve.
You can check Laddr out by visiting the website below:
- Website: https://www.laddrchess.com
Finally, I hope I have been able to excite and enlighten you about the various possibilities that lies out there in regards to learning and education.
Also, if you have any questions, suggestions, or if you’re interested in funding the research and development, you can send me a mail at isaac@laddrchess.com.
The future is certainly interesting!
Take care and happy holidays.
