Now I want these "anyone can be a GM" people to try exactly what e4Najdorf did and when they fail to improve even half as much they can tell us all their excuses 
0-2224 in less than three years
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congrats, your one of the top 25 in your state in 3 years, at the age of 16. I'm 13 now, what did you do!! (other than play that many tournaments, cos I can't do that, live too far away.
manspider29 wrote:
congrats, your one of the top 25 in your state in 3 years, at the age of 16. I'm 13 now, what did you do!! (other than play that many tournaments, cos I can't do that, live too far away.
According to him he played blitz and studied middlegame books. And although he considers openings and middlegames to be the most important he played what he later realized were bad openings and won anyway. That got him to 1900 in 1 year.
Good luck.
ok, thanks
manspider29 wrote:
ok, thanks
(He says it 6 posts above mine if you want to read it yourself 
)
So let's see, your 400 tournament games probably got you around a thousand hours of study, your 147 tournaments time inbetween games probably around 500 hours, your self identified 2-3 hours a day on average of study accounts for about 3800 hours. Around 5300 hours or so Is that including youtube videos and blitz games online and your coaching lessons?
Sounds like you put in the work, had the motivation, and got rewarded. Well done.
Ya i saw post 61 lol. Reread my question.
Dec 8, 2013
0
#72
Phelon wrote:
Ya i saw post 61 lol. Reread my question.
Oh, that wasn't in reply to you. I was actually just thinking of all the demand for a study plan here after the beginner and intermediate level study plans offered and thought, whatever Matt used would probably be a pretty good one since it took him to master so quickly!
Great job and good luck!
Also thanks for sharing what you did
e4Najdorf wrote:
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.
You have some strategic talent obviously since basic tactics like that alone should only propel you past 1000. Forget about ECO you'll just be remembering pointless variations whereas you'll find good moves naturally if you understand the base strategic principles.
+1 with My System, that's required reading above 1400.
Back to ECO, you'll be far better off with ECE and at 2224 you are at a level where it'll benefit you (assuming you seriously finished Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual and Shereshevsky's Endgame Strategy, which is on the top of my book pile to the left so I have no trouble with spelling his name now ^_^ )
Still keep up on theory since it's important up there but don't neglect to fix holes in your understanding. Good moves naturally flow from understanding.
Like I said you're awesome so keep up the good work!
Awesome job !
150 tournaments in 3 years is a lot of tournaments.
That's one per week, so I'm assuming they are all at a local club that holds weekly tourneys with the same people each week. Have you tried playing in larger tournaments outside that group?
ive played only a couple larger tournaments mainly because my parents wont take me to a lot of them, but i will be playing the u 2300 section of the North American Open after this christmas
[COMMENT DELETED]
TheGreatOogieBoogie wrote:
e4Najdorf wrote:
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.
You have some strategic talent obviously since basic tactics like that alone should only propel you past 1000. Forget about ECO you'll just be remembering pointless variations whereas you'll find good moves naturally if you understand the base strategic principles.
+1 with My System, that's required reading above 1400.
Back to ECO, you'll be far better off with ECE and at 2224 you are at a level where it'll benefit you (assuming you seriously finished Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual and Shereshevsky's Endgame Strategy, which is on the top of my book pile to the left so I have no trouble with spelling his name now ^_^ )
Still keep up on theory since it's important up there but don't neglect to fix holes in your understanding. Good moves naturally flow from understanding.
Like I said you're awesome so keep up the good work!
Actually I completely agree with e4Najdorf. In G/30 games you really need to focus on opening prep and middlegame stuff. Endgames aren't so important. I mean... ok, if you're playing QGD and Berlin, ok you need endgames even in G/30, but look at the openings he uses.
Also a big LOL at tactics will only propel you past 1000. Tactics will propel you as far as your calculation and talent allow. Maybe not much past 2500 but seriously... I laughed.
Phelon wrote:
So let's see, your 400 tournament games probably got you around a thousand hours of study, your 147 tournaments time inbetween games probably around 500 hours, your self identified 2-3 hours a day on average of study accounts for about 3800 hours. Around 5300 hours or so Is that including youtube videos and blitz games online and your coaching lessons?
Sounds like you put in the work, had the motivation, and got rewarded. Well done.
Well, first of all, they were G/30 games. I think 40-50 minutes for the whole game is a reasonable average. Giving ~260-330 hours not 1000 hours lol.
What does this mean, "time inbetween games" ? Do you think it's "deliberate practice?"
Are blitz and watching youtube deliberate practice? Come on now...
once i get it ill post the picture here and chess.com can give me the label lol