How To Become A Chess Grandmaster?
- Opening Preparation: Become an opening expert in various openings; understand your variations and know the theory.
- Calculation Skills: Improve your calculation methods, systemize your calculation and solve chess puzzles to improve your pattern recognition.
- Endgame Skills: Chess Grandmasters often outplay their opponents in the endgame; study key theoretical endgames also excel in practical endings.
- Focus: Chess Grandmasters are professionals with a fighting attitude.
- Psychological Strength: Develop a never-give-up-attitude, get the right mindset to win your games.
Earning a chess title, especially the grandmaster title, is not a piece of cake. Few make the cut, and those who do go down in history alongside Bobby Fischer. Many people work very hard on their chess, but their Elo rating stagnates. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication in order to get a chess title.
There are around 800 million chess players in the world and only about 1500 of them are grandmasters. Hence, only about 0.3 % of all registered FIDE players currently hold a grandmaster title.
Still, many chess players wonder if they have the potential to become a grandmaster. What are the official requirements to get a grandmaster title? What does it take to become a grandmaster? What skills do you need to play at grandmaster level?
There’s plenty of debate on what makes a chess grandmaster and what it takes to become one. Subsequently, the following article is devoted to the question “What is a Chess Grandmaster?”
Current Regulations To Become A Chess Grandmaster
The chess title Grandmaster is awarded to chess players by the world chess organization, FIDE. Apart from becoming World Chess Champion, being a Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can reach.
Other official FIDE titles are Candidates Master (CM), FIDE Master (FM) and International Master (IM). It is interesting to note that many chess enthusiasts often use the unofficial title “Super Grandmaster” to refer to the world’s best chess players with a 2700+ ELO-rating.
Once a player becomes a chess grandmaster, the title is held for life. Although there is also a Woman Grandmaster title with lower requirements only for women, the Grandmaster title is open to men and women. https://cdn1.ichess.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Untitled-Design-60-600x1500.jpg 600w, https://cdn1.ichess.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Untitled-Design-60-768x1920.jpg 768w, https://cdn1.ichess.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Untitled-Design-60-400x1000.jpg 400w, https://cdn1.ichess.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Untitled-Design-60.jpg 800w" style="border-style:none;vertical-align:middle;height:auto;float:right;margin-left:1.5em;" />
To achieve a GM title, chess players usually need to achieve norms in internationally rated tournaments. In order to get 1 GM-norm, a player has to fulfill the following criteria:
- The player must play at least 9 games in the tournament (with some exceptions you can read in the FIDE Handbook).
- The player has to play against at least two players from federations other than his own federation (with some exceptions you can read in the FIDE Handbook).
- At least 50% of the player’s opponents have to be titled-players. On top of that, at least 1/3 (with a minimum of 3 opponents) of the opponents have to be Grandmasters.
- The minimum rating of the player’s opponents is 2380.
- The Performance Rating of the player who wants to achieve the GM-norm has to be at least 2600.
These 5 criteria are the most important ones you need to fulfill in order to reach 1 GM-norm. Still, it has to be said that there are some more detailed regulations in the FIDE Handbook.
In order to get the Grandmaster title, a player usually needs to get 3 GM-norms (with some exceptions again). On top of that, your FIDE rating has to have passed 2500 at some point in order to become a Grandmaster.
All the small details aside, it quickly becomes obvious that it is really tough to become a grandmaster. The following example highlights this: Achieving a performance rating of 2600 or more if the rating of your opponents is 2380 means that you need to score at least 7 points out of 9 games.
The Youngest Chess Grandmasters Ever
The record for the youngest grandmaster is currently held by nobody else than the former World Chess Championship Contender Sergey Karjakin, who earned the Grandmaster title at the age of 12 years and 7 months.
The second youngest Grandmaster is Nodirbek Abdusattorov from Uzbekistan with 13 years and 1 month and the third youngest GM is Parimarjan Negi with 13 years and 4 months.
Actually, it is interesting to note that World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen was only 5 days older than Negi when he became a Grandmaster. Therefore, he is the fourth youngest GM in the world.
How To Become A Chess Grandmaster?
Plenty of skills and attitudes are needed in order to become a Grandmaster. Here’s a brief overview of the most important aspects required:
- Opening Preparation:
Grandmasters usually play various openings or at least different lines within an opening system. What’s more, they are absolute experts in the openings they play. They do not only know about typical plans, idea and tactical patterns in their openings but also memorize a ton of theory. They analyze their lines very deeply and often know their opening until the middlegame or even endgame.
- Calculation Skills:
Without good calculation skills, it’s nearly impossible to play a good game. Chess is a concrete game and the better you become, the more concrete it gets. If you want to play at a very high level, you can’t rely on general concepts. The calculation is one area of the game in which grandmasters usually perform a lot better than average club players. Improving your calculation methods (e.g. look for forced moves like checks or
- captures first) helps you to systemize your calculation. Thus, you’ll be able to calculate faster and more precisely.
- Endgame Skills:
Grandmasters often outplay weaker opponents in the endgame. Many club players believe that with reduced material, it is a lot easier to play. However, it is far from that. Endgames are one area of the game where most club players struggle. Grandmasters are not only familiar with the most important theoretical endgames, but also know plenty of essential endgame principles such as “Don’t hurry”, “Plus-equal mode”, “Cutting off the King” and more.
- Focus:
If you want to become a chess Grandmaster, you need to be professional. It is important to sit at the board the entire time and focus on the game. Many average club players prefer to leave their board quite often during the game and watch other games or talk to their friends. In order to compete with other chess players on such a high level, you need to have a fighting attitude. On top of that, you also need a lot of dedication at home. Playing at Grandmaster level starts with investing countless hours of chess training at home. You need to have a clear study program and be willing to do all the hard work.
- Psychological Strength:
On your way to becoming a Grandmaster, you will suffer many painful defeats. You might be close to a GM-norm and lose an important game in the last round. Losing and failing is agony. Only a few sportsmen can handle it. In order to become a Grandmaster, you need to develop a never-give-up attitude.
- Money:
Last but not least, becoming a Grandmaster is expensive. You need to buy several good chess books, chess DVD series, and chess software. You need to pay strong chess coaches and you also need to travel to tournaments. Usually, the right tournaments to get a GM-norm are not next door, so you have to spend time and money to go there.
Conclusion:
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As we’ve seen in this article, a lot of different skills are required to become a chess grandmaster. Not only FIDE’s regulations make it tough to reach such a high level, but also different chess training aspects are extremely challenging.
Still, every journey of a thousand miles begins with a first step. Do you want to get some great insights into grandmaster Play by a strong Super Grandmaster? Click here and get a special discount on “The Paco Vallejo Method” by GM Paco Vallejo Pons (2716).
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