Possible to get GM without being a child prodigy?
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There is only one way.
hello
A much better question is: Why would anyone think that we know the answer?
"BeekeeperBob wrote: 'I am a 19 year old who has been toying with the idea of making chess a career for me ... Unfortunately, I currently have no official ranking. ... am I really that good, that given enough time I can do well at chess? And if I am good, how long would you expect it to take for me to get my IM and/or GM? 10 years? 15? ... has anyone actually started their chess career at my age, and achieved a ranking that put them in the top 50 chess players of their time?'
... Dear BeekeeperBob,
… Getting an IM or GM title demands endless effort. You will fail, you will continue to study, you will fail again, etc. etc. for years. Pain (losing and failing is agony, and few can handle it as time goes by), time (as I said a moment ago, years and years), and money (chess books, chess software, traveling to tournaments, chess teachers, etc.) must all be dealt with to become a grandmaster.
... Though your Chess.com rating is in the 1400s, your tournament rating would be closer to 1100 or 1200. Online ratings are often higher than tournament ratings, …
... I would have to say that even if you were 2200 right now, it would still be extremely difficult for you to become an IM, let alone a GM. The fact that you’re just starting out makes the IM/GM dream almost impossible. I say 'almost' since such things have happened. It is very rare, but you never really know.
... why not do what I mentioned and walk step by step to a doable goal, then ratchet up the effort for your next, more difficult goal. If you eventually find that you are one of those rare people who can do the 'almost impossible,' then great! I’ll certainly be delighted for you. However, even if you don’t become an IM or GM, you’ll find that all that study and effort will make you a very strong player. …" - IM Jeremy Silman (2016)
https://www.chess.com/article/view/can-anyone-be-an-im-or-gm
Dec 20, 2019
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#47
rothaus wrote:
You're more likely to die in a car crash than becoming GM.*snip*
Nothing more comforting than reading an encouraging post here.
Dec 20, 2019
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#48
Possible to get GM without being a child prodigy?
Chili Palmer can get any GM you want
Dec 21, 2019
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#49
SpiderUnicorn wrote:
The fundamental of chess isn't tactics, or endgames, or opening theory --- It is LOGIC.
So if you master LOGIC, you master chess.
haha the power of logic 
. Sounds so nice.
But really it is more than just logic. Chess has logic of course, but it is really more how far into the future can you see in your mind's eye, along multiple different pathways, keeping an accurate memory of the positions of the pieces on the board? Thus, spatial memory is a key aspect to any truly successful chess player.
But more than that, its your ability to see winning combinations that are only obvious 5 or 6 moves down the line. Its sort of like solving a math problem. Sometimes, certain solutions are only obvious if you rewrite the equation in a certain way, substitute variables, and transform it again, until it takes on a form where you have an answer that was previously impossible to see. Its that ability to see a sequence of moves all at once, which requires something more than logic. Logic is really more the foundation, not just for chess, but for everything!
Dec 21, 2019
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#50
Laskersnephew wrote:
A much better question is: Why would anyone think that we know the answer?
And then one could ask the question again lol. What makes you think that no one on this board can provide an answer?
"What makes you think that no one on this board can provide an answer?"
I'm sure that thousands of people on these boards can provide answers. But they will almost certainly be worthless.
So you want the true, get ready: the response is to use the logic of your own question: "is it common for non-extraordinarily smart people to get GM? by just practice and learning?
1- If you are not an extraodinary person theres is no way it could be "common" to became a GM, no matter how much you practice or learn, because the general people learning capability is pretty limited compared to GM's, IM's etc.
"or is there a point where intelligence and insight are required to keep climbing in the ranks meaning i'd never be able to get GM?"
2- Yeap for the first part, that's why almost all GM's and IM's are above or way above the 98 percentile on the international IQ chart. But there is only one way to you became a GM: if The Good Lord want's he can make any man a GM, but must exist a greater purpose for that, why do you want to be a GM? what you will gonna do with that beyond things for yourself? The responses justifies why a not extraordinary one should or not to became a GM starting older in chess.
Jan 16, 2021
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#53
I am 13 years old. I have beaten players at around 1250 FIDE. I am currently one of the best in my city (In my age category). Do I have a chance of becoming an IM or a GM? I am asking this since I am by no means a chess prodigy..... just an intermediate player for now.
Feb 1, 2021
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#55
Possible, well yes.
Likely, definitely no.
You need to start earlier to have a real chance at becoming a GM. I doubt most Grandmasters are complete and utter prodigies, but the fact is they started young. A 22 year old just learning chess is not likely to be a Grandmaster.
Starting chess as a child doesn't even really affect your final chess standard much. Fischer was 13 before he started playing properly (like a lot of people he knew the rules before that, but he never actually sat down and studied it or went through games). It's not like gymnastics or reading/writing where you will be greatly disadvantaged if you don't start when a child. Chigorin didn't start playing properly until he was 25!
People talk about how the Russian champions started at 4 or 5 years old and that's how they are so great but you make it sound like they're going through books and with a chess trainer when at that age they are just fooling around like with lego blocks. On the other hand the vast majority of people who started at 4 or 5 end up as patzers like the rest of us.
Im just saying that if u played chess for 1 hour every day and then watched youtube openings videos by Hikaru r Gotham for 1 hour aswell then you get 730 hours a year an 7300 hours after 10 years. Isnt there sthg about youll be a master at the skill if you did it for 10,000 hours. Ive gone from 300 to 1400 in 1 year doing this so it could work
The 10,000 hours thing is nonsense. If that was what it took you'd have people doing that all the time. There are people who could spend 10,000 hours on chess and still be 1600 - and I'm sure there are a lot of older people like that. People like Kasparov talk about 10,000 hours because they're trying to shill courses and books and software.
It's like a videogame - is it always the players who play the most or take it the most seriously come out on top? No of course not. People have different abilities.
... A 1800 should score 3/4 against a 1600, and thus 15/16 against a 1400.
1-(.5^(d/100))? What if d is 0?
… 0/100= 0
0.5^0 =1( any number with power 0 =1)
1-1=0
Answer is "0" .
Should an 1800 score 0 against an 1800?
No but against me he should score -5