Can I become a FM?

I'm 21 and I started playing last july. Here's my ratings.

Standard 1068 but I'm really lazy at standard online chess, last week I was 1180

Tactics 1048 (when I started playing was something about 700)

Chesstempo blitz 1278.5

Chesstempo standard 1186.8

The only thing I have to do is go to the University. I have no intention of having a girlfriend or kids so maybe I get more free time than a regular guy.

Maybe. But it is a race against time, because once you get past 25 or so it will probably be much harder to improve.

It takes dedication though. Serious dedication. You have to be willing to make chess one of your life's top priorities, playing in tournaments almost every weekend, practicing and playing for hours every day, and analyzing your games to death. Coaching from at least a master level player will also help and may be a requirement at the higher levels.

The steps above took me from 962 U.S.C.F. to 1839 U.S.C.F. in about 19 months. However, it was easier for me than it will be for you because I am younger (16 years old). There is the possibility that you may have an innate talent for the game which could come out in the next year or two. But it will still take an enormous amount of work to reach FM. At 21 though it may well still be possible. Just extremely hard. The odds are stacked against you.

The question I'd want to ask is simply why?
Take a look at the modern masters, they look so stressed and frustrated. They look like they'll all going to have either a heart attack or a stroke at mid 30's.
Modern chess is so technical, so cold, so stark, so mechanical.
Looking at these guys, they're so skinny, so pale, so boring and unfortunate looking.
They've probably spent all of their childhood hunching over a table, studying some position because that's what they were told.
I don't see why anyone would willingly go be a master as things are now.

I'm saying keep it as a hobby.
Play for fun, not to improve. With today's competition, it is simply impossible to reach masters' levels if you're not 100% focused on chess.
These guys were all homeschooled, and devoted all their time into chess.
Chances are, they've more recorded games as kids than you and I combined will ever play.

 

Here's the answer I'm going to give every time someone posts this kind of question, i.e., can I become an FM, NM, GM, IM, Expert, Class A, etc.:

Only you know the answer to this. Work very hard, participate in tournaments, study, and play at every opportunity. The answer will reveal itself to you in time, and you won't have to come here to get opinions.

But before I leave, I'm going to have to agree with GnrfFrtzl. This is just a crazy pursuit. You will spend years pursuing something that is probably unattainable, only to find (if you ever get there) that it wasn't worth the time you wasted.

My goal is to be U.S.C.F. NM. If I get to that, I'll be satisfied. It's perhaps my biggest life goal actually, since I have no idea what else I'll be doing in ten years. Once I get to it, I have no idea if I'll stop, if I'll just coach, if I'll try for FM, or if I'll do something else. And it's not for any particular reason. Just because I've wanted to since I was under 1000.

If you treat chess like your job, it's possible.  If you treat chess like a coin collecting hobby, no.

Yes, as I said in my first post, you have to be willing to give up a lot for chess just to improve a few hundred points, let alone get a title. In any case, it gets harder as you get older so if FM is your goal, now is the time to study.

If you are at 1800 [and in your case achieved it so quickly] you can progress to 2200.

With me, I started at 1800+ from my first USCF tournament and slowly but steadily progressed from there.  

In my day there was no internet, chess books except for a few and none of the special ways to learn chess as you have now.  With all the free help you can get, and at your rate of progress, you should get to 2200 in about 3 years.   

I would suggest you work on an opening repertoire and also improve your tactics as your first 2 priorities.  You must have both to get to 2200. 

As I usually tell everyone who post theses-yes almost certainly. If you locked yourself up with a GM for 4 years and you'll probably be an FM when you come out. 

I guess it depends on how much time and money your willing to put into chess. If you can put in 4 hours a day I think after 4 years you should have a title if you work hard enough.(that means you use that time on chess study, not forums or blitz). Tip-spend your time studying not posting these stupid threads, 90% of the responces are useless. Buy chess books-play 30 minutes chess games-get into longer and longer games ect. Best of luck!

@ponz111, thank you, as that is my goal and it is nice to hear that I am making progress. I had a huge leap in particular in late November, December, and very early January this year, as my rating, in about two months total, went from 1590 to 1805- so my floor was higher than what my rating had been two months before.

My opening repertoire, as white anyway, is mainly built on getting me playable positions where I will be able to outplay my opponent. Stuff like Qe2 and d3 sidelines of the Ruy, Bb5 Sicilians, and Queen's Gambits (I play both 1. e4 and 1. d4 depending on the game situation and my opponent's repertoire). As black though I'm starting to look into more dynamic stuff, such as Meran and Open Ruy Lopez. My black repertoire used to be much more solid and less dynamic, with stuff like Classical Slav and Chigorin Ruy as my main defenses, and I can still play those if I feel like it. So that is how I approach openings mostly.

As for tactics, I do spend a lot of time on chess.com tactics trainer (I recently reset my tactics trainer history so that is why it might show that I only have a few hours).

My question for you then is how important are endgames? So far I have made very little serious effort on endgames. I know Philidor, Lucena positions, two bishop checkmate, and I think my rook endgame technique is not bad, but a lot of people at one of my chess clubs (Fell's Point Chess Club in Baltimore) tell me that I need to make endgames one of my priorities. I do want to point out that most of these people are about 1900-2000 rated and used to be higher, but have gone down in the rating lists with age. They are very strong at endgames but I tend to think that endgame skill is something that I can get with experience, whereas tactical skill I need to really work on and practice all the time. Is this right?

dpnorman  Endings are important in your situation but not as important as openining repertoire and tactics.  You are already working on both and that is good.

[I am not sure the Ruy Open is  sound for Black] I play the Bb5 Sicilians but always take the Knight on c6 when possible  1. e4  c5 2. Nf3  Nc6

3. Bb5  g6  4. Bxc6   I notice some supergrandmasters are copying me. [this is a joke]

You should know the basic Pawn endings and probably you need some work on these. here a book or other information would be helpful.

Rook and Pawn endgames are very important as they come up often. Some decades ago I had a book on such endgames.  If you can find a book or other study information on that type of endgames--it will help a lot.

You also need to be aware of the positional situation of a good Knight vs a Bad Bishop--see if you can find information on this. [or you can look at some of my games for this motive ]

I think you are on the right track but with the addition you need to know well the Pawn endgames and Rook endgames.

I still have yet to play Open Ruy in a tournament. It looks fun but unfortunately the main line of the Be7 variation leads to a position (after my g4 bishop gets kicked to h5 and then g6) where white has very high scores.

Are there other dynamic Ruy lines you recommend? The closed is kinda slow. I do think the Open is a good practical choice maybe.

And just in my last tournament I won a very nice game with a good knight vs bad bishop. My knight on d5 facilitated the pushing of my passed pawn to c3, and blocked his d4-pawn, and his bishop on e3 was blocked by his pawns on d4, e5, and f4. The key was not really winning that endgame but finding the winning sequence to get there in the first place.

In Brazil I guess its easy to get at least a 1800 fide rating lol.. I just saw a very stupid game with opening pointless moves... the first rating of this player was 1809 (to 1600 eventually). As long as you dont give away pieces you should be able to go

to become an FM, you need a 2300 FIDE chess rating

Hashtag-PandaPower wrote:

to become an FM, you need a 2300 FIDE chess rating

Sure. Im just saying

Well 3-4 criteria i can think about. First one depends on your personality, you dont have to be genius or you dont need insane memory but you definetely need solid character and strong psychology. Since i play this game for around 22+ years with little improvement, and seen hundred can improve and thousands cant, personality is one of the most important. There will be a lot of times you will want to look for solution instead of calculate, will be about to turn the engine on instead of analyze more, blitzing instead of studying hard (or just wanting to solve tactics instead of doing some real thinking), there will be time you will be burned out, gave up chess like hell. You need to work consistently, willingly, open minded, concentrated. You need to study structured and disciplined. (You have to study and play every day but not like me study for 5 days but no play, 3 days do nothing, 4 days only playing. It should be balanced everyday to gain something)

If you believe you have that character and iron will then rest is ;

* You need a coach or high rated friends around still active in chess (engines dont count as real players)

*You need some good books, dont go for beginer books, ask a profesional player or coach to help you. If you cant afford regular coaching then you can at least make an agreement with 1h/ every month just for he makes a plan and offers advice. You can report your progress like 40-45 minute of session and he can revise your plan rest of time. (probably 40-50 usd month is not that expensive for this)

If you have the character, a good mentor and you put the work in then you can be master for sure. Given that you have that much time 6-8 hours a day (your aim is must be an IM not FM in 10 years) (It is more time then a young gm works to be gm, but considering age it might stay at IM)

Try for a year, evaluate yourself, if you are working hard as necessary then go on, if not do not even try. I dont say anything about ratings, sometimes you gain rating while not improving hard, and sometimes you stuck with rating although you improve greatly, the thing you should measure must be your hard work and ethic.

My friend just played 1.b4 against a FM 2 months ago, then sacrificed a pawn and game ended draw. He is not even b4 player and when i asked he played something like that instead of his usual reti he said he didnt sleep good the night before and he just felt it was good idea at the moment. So dont think about openings much :) (Well still dont play b4 against hard match-up :)) My friends also has 2200+ elo by the way and he is usually performing better than that, so draw with white against weak FM (2190~ probably still losing more points) is not good result for him IMO

You're starting late, and have other time commitments, so you'll have to love the work.

Some good signs: you see every game as an exciting opportunity to learn something new, you wake up thinking about chess, you dream about chess, and you do this for years day after day.

I do not know any really good Ruy Kopez lines to play as Black. However I would advise you to drop the Open Defense since you have found a very good line against it.  When you get up to 2200 or so you do not want a problem opening/defense in your repertoire.

If I started over, knowing what I know now, I would play the Black side of the French Defense and 1. c4 for White with the Ponziani as a back up.