Can Anyone Become Grandmaster?

Yes, that's why everyone is.

Not sure if your trying to insult me or not but doesn't really matter, and yes i believe in reincarnation but i also believe you can achieve anything your mind can conceive. The only limitations you set are the ones you set in your own mind. Like i said before, MJ could have quit after he got kicked off the high school team or he could have done what he did, not let that get in the way of his dreams and become MJ. Period. If you dont believe you can become a grandmaster cool, thats you, but dont try to put doubt in anyone elses mind because you think its something so far out reaching that if you cant do it then nobody else can cause i tell you there are thousands of grandmasters... you want to become one of them or are you gonna keep spreading doubt like your doing now? ... either way im on my way and im very hardheaded to negativity and open minded to positivity ...so you sir, have a goodnight and go f*ck yourself. 

I think y'all should play a match against each other.

yeah i think we should...shouldnt we...

I really love this and agree with you 100%

In real success there is often a big part of luck and coincidence at play. You see the successful one while the 100 that failed go unnoticed. And quite some are just abnormal maniacs in their focus. You have to be obsessed with chess to become fischer or carlsen. I would not want to be like that.

So, you're wealthy now?

Well chess_gg, why does a painting by lucian freud cost millions? Why is brad pitt a rich actor? Why is bill gates a successful businessman? Well there was a lot of luck involved.. Being a maniac in your field helps, but many artists are famous because they were among the lucky few. Others worked harder and had more talent but life is unpredictable.

Poor me? Suck you down? Man this is a chess site. If you really think that you are surrounded by losers because we believe that nicolas taleb is right when he writes about the underestimation of luck and randomness, then you still have a long way to go..

Meh, those examples seem way more applicable to random outside factors. Chess is a pretty honest battle where something like popularity/random economy stuff plays a very minor role compared to your other examples. You don't need to be able to write to become a bestselling author, as long as you're famous. Most #1hits are scored by people who clearly aren't the best singers. You can win an oscar while you're clearly nothing special as an actor, as long as you're popular/hot at that time.

Those things just don't apply in chess that much, though I agree with you that there's alwayd some luck factor ofc. If lady gaga was 2200 she'd get way more opportunities compared to some other unknown 2200 woman. Still though, when facing true 2500's she'd just lose.

Maybe if you're a solid 2350 on a lucky streak against like 15 2500's who are all in bad form or have a playstyle that really suits you'd get lucky and reach that title.There's probably some GM's out there that got lucky to have reached their title, and there's probably some IM's who deserve to be a gm who just got unlucky.

The gap isn't that great as in other things though, can you name any serious contender who shouldn't have been there? The closest I'd get would be morozevich who was top 4 at one point with like 2770, while his accurate rating was more like 2720.

Hard work means a lot, I'd agree that any talented 1400 can be a 2000. The step from 2000-2300 is bigger though, aand the step from 2300-2500 is even bigger. Talent just plays a huge role as well, I'm sorry but a guy who trains hard for 5 years only to be 1400, just won't become a gm.

Strawman. None has ever claimed here that hard work is not going to make you improve, that it is useless because anyways, etc. (aka "loser talk").

I even wrote some pages ago that thinking that everything is possible (aka "delusional talk") is actually an advantage to do things, because no matter how wrong it is, it gives a psychological edge.

Of course hard work will make you improve in any field, and chess is one of the fields that reward work the most. But it won't make you improve as much as you want, even if you work as hard as you can.

There are no "thousands of grandmasters", there are 1437 GMs including inactive players.

Did you discover why Sofia Polgar couldn´t become a GM?

Hattrick, i was reacting to chess_gg and his post was about success in life.

maybe, but only if anyone could be a master.

Then, have children, and when those children grow up if they have children, anyone could become a grandmaster.

Otherwise, I think the answer is probably no. 

No your right, but the point is, getting in this circle of grandmasters is definetely not impossible. take a good look at this list... I seriously doubt all of them are geniuses and didnt work hard to get there, Bobby Fischer on the other hand was a chess Genius but if you look at his documentary he studied his ass off 10 years before he became one... 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_chess_grandmasters

looking at this list makes poeple feel they can do it to, its not impossible... hard work and dedication. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwLM9bgE3tY

Ok,then I agree with you there, I was replying on the original subject

thanks. Yes, he's gender neutral,  and tries to stay off the rim.

Obviously no, it's not possible for anyone. But for every person who actually becomes a GM there's probably 1000 or 10 000 more who could so no need to despair. And anyway, if your playing chess depends on the answer to the question, you haven't got a chance. It's about addiction just as much as about talent, hard work etc. 

There are 8 million registered players in FIDE's  database. 

Now, that excludes millions of players who are registered in national federations but not with FIDE. Well over 2/3rds of the US chess players are not on that list for example.

Best estimates are that world wide there are around 20 million or so competative chess players.

GM's are .007% of the competative chess players in the world.

That means for every GM there are around 13,000 competative chess players who aren't GMs.

Anyone who thinks it's just dedication and hard work is delusional and oblivious to the facts involved. 

Behold, a common phenomenon on the chess.com forums: one troll calling another troll a troll.

And, since I made this post, it's actually one troll calling another troll who is calling another troll a troll a troll. And yes, that sentence makes sense.