Ask your GM Chesscoach

You take a deep breath and you walk through the doors
It's the mornin' of your very first day
You say "hi" to your friends you ain't seen in a while
Try and stay out of anxiety's way
It's your starting match and you're gonna be here
For the next four days in this hotel
Hopin' one of those arbiters will wink at you and say
"You know, your opponent isn't here"

Hi

hewo

Hello everyone

How hard is it to be a GM

I've heard of the "10,000 hours rule". (10000 hours of studying to become a gm) is this true, and how many hours have u roughly spent to become gm. And at what age did you start studying chess seriously

This quote is not even close for chess bro. İt depends on how do you study.

As a 1000 elo How can I play a blitz tournament and consistently finish top 20 or 30 players out of 2,000 and one of the lowest elo in that ranking but I make stupid mistakes in a regular game?? I don't understand.

Hello Kenji129_4, I haven't counted my hours. The point of such a rule is that it requires a lot of dedicated studying and playing to become a GM. And I can attest that it did take a lot of my time, which I was happy to give of course.

I have sort of always studied chess seriously ever since I started at the age of 4. And that got me to a lot of cups and national youth championships.

That depends on your situation jodok12. If you have mostly played blitz/bullet online then play some longer time-controls to get used to the 40 minutes. Otherwise, practice some challenging puzzles behind your own chessboard to get a feel for what it's like.

Hope this helps, good luck!

Hello specialk5573, There could be many reasons. I would check my regular games and try to figure out where and why I went wrong.

Hi everyone, I still have some room for new students. Check my website for more information: chesscoachroeland.com. Or send me a DM here on chess.com.

Okay

Gg

I´m thinking about starting to train with chessbooks. What books would you recommend me starting with? I have been recommended Silmans books, Dvoretsky, Agaard and Kasparovs earlier, but dont know what to start with. I have never worked a lot with books, but I have Yusupovs first Build up your chess and have worked a bit with it. I´m 13 and my fide classical is 1830.

Hi

Those are all wonderful books, AjedrezeRapido. I would recommend starting with Silman's for endgames, and when you have 2100-2200, then repeat endings with Dvoretsky. Concerning middlegames. Check your games thoroughly together with openings. By studying openings, you also get a feel for a lot of types of middlgames.

Hope this helps,

Chesscoach Roeland

Coincidence: I just posted in the openings forum about 100 topplayers who faced 1. c4 f5 2. Nf3 with black. No one (!) played 2. ...e5 and I wonder why.

Now I stumble over this topic of yours I remember your name was on that list of 100 topplayers and I can ask the question directly:

Spoelman- Pruijssers 2017 (0-1), did you consider 2. ...e5 and if not, why not?

Thankyou very much

Hi