Can a person below 1000 become a top grandmaster?

you can.all you have to do is work hard and get money, rent a NASA spaceship,travel to star wars,go to master yoda,and beg him to teach you how to do a jedi mind trick.keep doing it 24 hrs a day and he will get annoyed and tell you how.travel back,go to earth and do jedi mind tricks on people when they are playing you.

I would say an CIA (oooh...) spaceship, the NASA ones will explode before they get there (apollo 13 and the unfortunate space shutlles)

Same here. I was over 1000 shortly after learning the moves. About 1500 after a year of moderate study. But I highly doubt I will ever break 2200.

This is probably the most likely route.

DarknisMetalDragon, the answer is no. Harsh maybe, but true. Ask yourself the question why you want to become a top grandmaster? You can enjoy chess at any level, and being a competitive amateur can be great fun -- you don't have to dedicate your life to a board game to prove something.

Less than 0.05%. I would say forget it and play for fun. Go to college and get a job.

It's theoretically possible, although incredibly unlikely, for a GM to make an epic blunder (like miss a back rank mate, or other mate in 1) against a novice.

well, most grandmasters are >2000 rating. Think about that.

When people say everyone starts at 700 or 1000, they mean playing strength, not actual OTB tournament ratings.  People don't learn the moves and play their first game rated.

its not easy  mostly child prodigies become gms but yES with hard work and determination u will become a titled player

Yes, but people can start at drastically different playing strengths. I was better after 10 games than basically all of my friends. I was over 1000 after very little playing time. I continued playing a game here or there, no studying, and I was around 1200 rating shortly.

I know a lot of people who would take months or even years of playing to break 1000 or 1200. I'm sure Carlsen was way better after 10 games than I was.

Becoming a great GM is not like becoming a surgeon or a physicist; there's no real course of study that can assuredly lead to it. It's like asking if you can one day dunk a basketball from the foul line if you work really really hard. The short answer? No. Unless that gift is alredy in you, waiting to be perfected with hard work, it isn't going to happen.

1.Hire a team of coaches.

2.Study ECE from cover to cover, more than once (it's a multi-volume set, each volume has over 400 pages), this after you finish Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual, and that after a more basic endgame book.

3.Study the games of the top players, way up there it's all about preperation, since a deep understanding and excellent technique are presumed (makes sense, given that they're mandatory for being above FIDE master)

4.Oh, about the above, obtain said understanding and technique in the first place, again, by studying games with your team of coaches.  You are crap out of luck if you don't have that kind of money by the way. 

Depends on how hard you try. But to try hard enough to become even an average gm, you would have to sacrifice a lot of other stuff. So I guess ultimately it depends on how much you want to be a gm. If for you chess is just one of many interests (like it is for me), then imo I think it's not worth trying to become a gm. Just play casually, let yourself improve as much as you can naturally, and have fun!

Btw, I started playing on this site almost 2 years ago, when I was in my mid-teens, and in my first month or so here my rating stayed around where you are right now. After playing regularly up till this point, my rating has improved to around 1200, where it's remained fairly stable for months. I've never read a single chess book, and I don't study openings and all that kind of stuff, and I don't plan on doing any of that stuff in the future, so I probably won't be improving a lot from where I am now. But I still enjoy playing chess, and to me that's what matters.

     Jeremy Silman became an international master even though his first rating was 1068. He claims that it shouldn't have been that and in the 950s. He would be a grandmaster if he focused more on actually playing instead of coaching. Based on this, I think the answer to my question is yes now.

     Another point I want to bring up is that some people take longer to get used to the game. It doesn't mean you're worse if you take longer imo. I'll admit that I could be wrong though since I'm not that high up.

Is that just with anybody or me in particular because of my rating.

Anybody who isn't already a master by the age of 10 or whatever.

The chances are probably the same as winning the Powerball.

In all seriousness ... I think the chances probably aren't that bad if you're willing to devote yourself wholeheartedly to it. But the question is, do you love chess to the extent where you will be willing to do that? Because becoming a gm takes a lot of work - that's why not everybody who likes to play chess is a gm. Maybe some GM's or other titled players could post in ths thread, and tell us about what it took for them to get to where they are right now?

The point I'm trying to make is, the time and energy that it would take to become a gm could be used on other activities that most people (and especially people around your age group) would consider more fun. So for example, if you like playing chess but you're even more interested in singing, and you want to train to become a good vocalist, then you can't do that and try to become a gm and keep up with your schoolwork at the same time. You have to choose which activity you are more passionate about. And if it is singing (or something else other than chess), then becoming a gm will just have to be put on hold.

You are saying something pretty important. I am pretty sure I want to be a gm though. i'm considering what you said though.