My point was basically that Patels first tournament had him about 400. In 2 months he was established at 1050. I think it's reasonable to believe he was much better than 400 when he played his 1st games but needed a few tournaments to get used to things & play to his true level. I think it's that way for many players, especially young kids. Adults will have a narrower distance between their first provisional rating & their first established rating.
0-2224 in less than three years
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That's very impressive and you're clearly a very talented person at this game.
I guess it takes about ten years to sort of mature in chess. So with normal "hobby"-ish play you could expect to climb another 100 to 200 Elo comming years as you practise, have new realisations about the game and adjust your style. (perhaps even more depending on effort) Enjoy!
I hope nobody from the "Can anyone become a GM" sees this thread.
To the OP-Hell of an ascent. Congrats.
The lowest possible USCF rating is 100. My youngest son started with a provisional rating of 100 because he lost his first 3 tournament games. I don't think that the original rating reflected his actual playing strength, however. Within a year, his rating increased to over 600. Unfortunately, he has stopped playing.
waffllemaster wrote:
fburton wrote:
Scottrf wrote:
There can't be much talent if he was at a rating of 0.
Is that even possible? It must take a special sort of effort to get a zero rating, no?
Some kids have sub 500 ratings... which is just... unimaginable to me. I've seen published ratings in the 100s...
I assume they hate chess and their parents made them play for a summer and they lost every game because they weren't interested enough to remember how the pieces moved.
Dec 7, 2013
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#51
AlCzervik wrote:
I hope nobody from the "Can anyone become a GM" sees this thread.
To the OP-Hell of an ascent. Congrats.
And the people from the "Can I become an IM in my lifetime?" 
Matt Miller,
Did you study basic engames until you were rock solid in technique? Pawn structures? Tactics? I know it sounds like you focused on openings but that couldn't be your main focus. You wouldn't be a master without other areas being honed as well. If you were to sum up the majority of your efforts which area do you think got the most attention? Please Sir Chess Beast, elaborate ........reporters cameras flashing, 35 microphones in your face......... everyone in suspense waiting for answers..........
Congrats !! You made it look easy ! 
Congrats Matt that is really the accomplishment! I have played less tournament games over my entire uscf career than you have in the last 12 months!
Here I got a picture of your rating graph too so everyone can see how you reached 2226.
Thanks everyone, Here is how i did it; i first learned basic tactics like fork skewer, blah blah blah. I studied that for about 6 months and reached a rating of 1600 (2-3 hours a day of study) then I bought some chess books about strategy, (my system, jeremy silmans complete book of chess, graham burgesses books), all the while playing tournament chess and blitz chess.
I reached 1900 at the end of the first year. I had a coach at the time who was 2250 I kept this coach until the end of 2012 when he went loco and we stopped doing lessons.
In the second year with my old coach i continued studying "bad openings" like the alekhines defence, grand prix attack, scotch gambit, and polish defence(this opening really is bad.). I watched videos of "KingsCrusher" on youtube. I played a lot of online blitz and in general i put in 2-3 hours a day.
This was with a mixed study plan (opening middlegame(most important stages) and endgame.) I kept playing and i eventually got my rating to 2000. Then i took a break from tournament chess chess for a while in the end of 2012 but i was still studying all the while.
Then in 2013 i learnt that my openings were bad and I decided to switch my openings. (I play KID, Najdorf, some Sveshnikov, and some Grunfeld as black) And for white i learned mainline e4 especially the open sicillian a lot more. All the while ive been playing blitz
and studying a little middlegame and endgame.
I got lucky in my last tournament and that is how i broke master.
I do believe that reading ECO is a useful endeavor.
socialista wrote:
e4Najdorf wrote:
I just broke master, look at my uscf rating http://www.uschess.org/component/option,com_wrapper/Itemid,181/
i started december 27th 2010 and broke master december 5 2013.
BOOM
Are you going to become USCF NM? or which is the title that you got now?
(Since your profile still says Candidate Master)
I will become a National Master
That's very good. Do you think that might be a record? 1113 was the very first established rating in Feb 2011. So 1113 points in 2 yrs, 10 mnths. Exactly double. I agree with you Matt, BOOM!
Check out the rating history for Advait Patel he is a young boy from WV where i am from, really a good kid as well. Went from 399 in Oct. 2010 to 1900"s in Oct 2012 and is now very close to Master now that is impressive
Yeah, that's amazing too. However, his very first established rating was 1050 in the exact same month as Matt. So in 2 yrs & 10 mnths he gained 1137! Almost the same over the same period. Wow. How old is he?
He just turned 11 about 2 months ago i think, he will be a Master in the next tourn. or 2 check out his result in the Fall chess Festival in Michigan last month, very impressive