Becoming A Candidate Master Before Finishing Highschool?

a full high-school summer vacation doing nothing but studying chess?

Moon-Knight,  I've looked at all of your on-line games.  Why did you time-out on all of them?  If you mean what you say...you want to get better at the game...be serious about your playing.  Also, you don't need "all the books".  Start with just one:  "Learn Chess--A Complete Course" by Alexander and Beach.  Available at Amazon.com used for about $5.00.

   If your serious, challenge me to an un-rated game and I'll try and help.  But no timing-out.

Moon-Knight---I'm not advocating going behind your parents'  back.  If you like, challenge me to an un-rated game at a move per week.  Try and buy "Learn Chess--A  Complete Course".  Again, good luck!

Moon-Knight: Following is a series of questions you should train yourself to askat every move. I'm told that they are from "Secrets of the Russian Chess Masters, Book 1" by Alburt & Parr: 1. Does my opponent's last move contain a threat? If so, deal with it. 2. Are my own pieces all adequately protected? Has my opponent left a piece exposed to capture for free? 3. Is my King still safe? Is the opponent's King vulnerable? 4. Did my opponent meet the threat offered by my last move? 5. Do I still have pieces that need development? 6. Can I move a Rook to an open file--say the d- or e- files? Is it possible to double Rooks or a Queen on a useful open file? 7. Does my opponent have a weakness that can be exploited? 8. If so, how can the weaknesses be exploited? (Find a way to exploit a weakness that involves making a plan!) 9. Does the move I plan to make overlook something very, very simple, such asthe loss of a piece or checkmate? Train yourself to look around at the position "with thw eyes of a beginner," as Russian players often say. Taken from an article by Bob Long

IM and GM are not achieved by ratings.. you can only get those titles by getting norms from very good scores (6.5/9 for example) against tournaments that stand in certain criteria.

I know someone with a current fide rating of 2581, in 2006 his rating passed 2400 and in 2009 passed 2500 but only in 2010 did he got IM and shortly after GM.

I don't know how it works in the US, but according to this site: http://www.chess.jpkoonce.net/RatingClasses.html 2000 is already a candidate master while 2200 is national master

If you were anything like me, at first something like calculating a few moves deep and seeing the position was hard.  But we kept trying to do it every game until it became easier and easier.

This is an over-simplified summary of how improvement works, but quickly illustrates how you have to push yourself to improve.  The parts of your game that you find difficult you have to exercise every game possible.  Push how far and accurately you can calculate when tactics arise, challenge all your candidate moves and try to find better ones, work hard at solving tactical puzzles that are hard for you. 

The more you push yourself in difficult areas the easier they become.  Once they get a bit easier you'll find new challenging areas.  It may have to do with evaluating the board, your move selection process, time management, or anything, but when they arise you have to tackle them, spend time with them, and get to where they're easier to preform.

So like fezzik says it's a tremendous amount of work (for the average player) but not impossible.  Just be aware this is how seriously you'll have to take it, e.g. cut out all the throw away chess where you're not pushing your new abilities like blitz chess.  Play long games where you really work at every single move, read chess books, and analyse your games and over time you'll improve.  A coach can help boost rating gains by directing your study, but all the hard work is still on you.

Less play and more study: I'm gonna beat these odds. I've been playing an average of ten online games per day for more than ten years, and still plan another 350 point rating gain over the next nine years. I've risen 400+ over the past seven.

Not as crazy as the 1200 I'm 3-1 against who thinks he'll be an expert by the end of the year. My way more modest goal is maybe 1400.

Many people lower in the rating ladder tend to just not "get" that the skill differential in this game is nearly logarithmic past 1600 ELO . 

100 rating points of an increase within months is an easy goal if you're a 1100-1400 but that mountain gets even more steep and insane to climb the higher you go.

I used to think that since I shot up from 1100 to 1500 in less than a year, it would be another year and I'd hit class A (USCF 1800) and one more year to expert.

Uhh..reality then officially kicked in. Struggling to break 1800, many years later and counting.  

There's a lot of work you need to put in, you have to be extremely OCD about making mistakes and really well organized and efficient about the way you study.

Not saying the OP isn't ready or probably won't to do all of this and more ... but I thought sharing this might help put some things in perspective. The fact that the OP is still living under a parent's roof and does not have bills/family/work to distract him gives him an excellent timeline to grow his chess.

Though I have to say => I have nothing but utmost respect for non-naturally talented adult players who worked their way to expert and beyond. Kudos to you! 

Your negativity amuses me. While my goal is difficult and might very well be impossible there's no reason to be rude. I don't think that I'm "pretty good" because of some online games. I don't even think I'm all that good. But when I'm setting a goal i like to shoot high. I'm dedicated. I study a few hours everyday. I'm joining the local chess club and looking for a coach.

So I don't need to hear from someone who's forgotten what it's like to set a high goal and fight with all your might to acheive it.

Don't let people like that get under your skin, although you have set a pretty high goal who knows you might just make it Good luck but there is a lot of truth to what Shivsky says the rating points get a lot harder the higher you get. Keep working at it you are young and i have seen young players improve alot in a short period of time.

Amen!

Ive been playing chess for 4 months and im at 1400 blitz rating by july i plan to reach at least 1500 and enhance my opening preparation.

Anyone can play a game and then post their chessical nonsense. There's no shortage of bad information coming from people who have played a game here. In fact I can think of people who have played a myriad of games and still have trouble making sense in their many thousands of posts.

If you want to keep the riff raff out then filtering out the non-paying parasites would be a more serious hurdle for those just out to stir up trouble or incapable of positive contributions.

Of course, then the site loses some good contributors. Just look at the parasites in this thread:

Moon_Knight

Tricklev

benonidoni

Sly_Uses

uhohspaghettio

aansel

Gambitking

acbell1996

Fezzik

Boring304

waffllemaster

Markle

ImaBullet

Obviously I'm the worst of all. No pay and no play. Get 'em!

Maybe if you wagged school, got a professional chess coach and played chess for 8 hours per day for the next 2 years without ever getting bored, then you might. But 2 years is a very short amount of time. It takes most people at least 5 years to go from a Class C chess player (~1500 rating) to a Master (~2200).

But one thing you should take into account is that it sort of works exponentially. For example, it might take 1 year from 1000-1400 rating, 1 year from 1400-1600 rating, 3 years from 1600-1800 rating, 5 years from 1800-2000 rating etc.

One last point to add as I did not see it posted earlier in this thread.

The OP must have a readily available pool of (class + 1, class + 2) players at his city/town's local tourneys.  

By class + 1 or 2, I mean people of the next two rating classes w.r.t you.  These are the folks you need to scalp to climb, ratings-wise.

If you're a 1200, you should be scalping 1400s.   If you're an 1800, you should be taking down experts and Masters.

I say this because not having a pool of strong players to scalp requires you to consider travelling to the nearest big "chess city" each weekend to play a tournament. Remember, the USCF doesn't give you rating jumps (at higher class levels) quickly (as fast as the OP would like!) unless you go after the big fish.

You can't get better unless you swim with the sharks regularly! :)

Thanks for the advice. I learned rating jumping from blitz. Its a better method of improving yourself too. I'm not sure how many points the uscf jumps people seeing that I've only been in 3 tourneys. I realize that my goal is improbable but I like to shoot high and besides... I'm the kind of person who works best under pressure. (Unless its time pressure that is! ;D)

But does that mean I should always enter higher than my class? Being rated 1093 and going into a U1600 tourney doesn't seem smart.. Highest I'm willing to go before I break 1300 is U1400.

Hopefully I'll be able to get my uscf rating up to my blitz rating soon!