Can the average person become a chess master?

Can becoming a chess master be taught to an average person? In other words, is being a chess master nature or nurture? Can it be all nurture? 

Anyone know any jokes about sodium? Na

Laszlo Polgar thinks it's nurture. His daughters seem to have done pretty well.

Some people who probably know their stuff (like Lasker, Tarrasch and a IM I know) have said any average person can reach master level if he/she is well guided and works hard. Going even further is another matter I suppose.

Well it's nurture, but nurture at a young age. If you're still an "average player" at 40 years old, it will be close to impossible to reach master.

Does anybody think the Polgars are "average"?

Polgar was a tournament chess player, he married the smartest person he could find, and then conducted a life-long experiment with their offspring. Does any of that sound "average"?

If you win the national senior's championship in some countries, they'll give you a master title.

Yeah, the Polgar sisters all learned chess at age three or four, were home-schooled with chess being the number one focus of their education, and went to dozens of countries to play.

Not average in any way.

It's very disheartening...but yes, to be a great chessplayer, you have to have been great in your youth.

"great"

you too pestimistic dpnorman.   this is a game, and to be better at most people is a privilege.  I know enough about your rating that you should feel priviledged.

as for being a 40year year. check.  Master? no.  "great player" - sure why not?

expert is a good "wildly optimistic but not likely target" 

I like 1800 (here) as a more sensible but still very difficult (and hard to achieve) target.

and here you have a 2100 bullet. lol.  why is 2100 bullet not great?

to the inevitable defense of why 1800's are big patzers.  you can always be disappointed not matter how great you are.  the WCC can moan about not being like Fischer.

this is a topic that is wildly popular. the consensus is that its very much Nuture, with a huge amount of effort out of even the prodigies.

I don't believe anyone since capablanca has become incredibly strong without alot of obvious hard work and study.  some might argue capablaca and Morphy prove the argument wrong.

that was a long time ago though.

BTW

the "average" chess player doesn't study hard enough.

so Neither nature NOR nuture or on his side.

that explains most of us.

Shame on you.  You made Pulpofeira cry.

yes, we old people have to be content with small accomplishments.

but you kids.... some of you have NO dedications and commitment.  I see this ALL the time. someone says they want to be GM - and gives up a week later.

I know kids can gain rating quick, but... sheesh.  its not a video game.

I feel better now, thanks. *sigh*

Bang-on!

The Polgar experiment is fascinating but freakish enough to rule out easy conclusions.

You guys should first make clear what is an average player. On chess com most players play blitz and average rating is around 1100. But thruth is perhaps around 1300, becouse there are tons of accounts with few games on it with 100% lost games those are trown away.  Average OTB club player is around 1600 i assume, while average chess player overall is probably 1 000 rated...

I believe average chess com blitz player plays only for fun and only thing that he learns is new opening trap, not real solid opening, but must be a trap or gambit and thats it. Not even tactic training. And he plays 20 games in a week... So impossible for him to get master level. Masters becomes a one who is already after work and tons of play and study already an advanced player looking to become expert and then master.

But the OP says average person. I think this means someone who is not especially gifted.

The OP is concerned with the "average person" not the average player.

I assume we're talking about the upper limits of chess accomplishment for the average person with no special gifts for memory, visualization or IQ, etc.

My guess is that most people could become strong club players (1600-2000) with the standard 10,000 hours of deliberate practice. Maybe more. I imagine age plays a strong role.

But I think we are a long ways from knowing how best to train average people to play chess and what their limits are.

The Soviet Union created a wonderful chess program, but only a very few became masters. They started young. They gave tremendous resources to the project, they involved the best players and coaches the country had to offer. 

Very few became masters. I guess they just did it wrong and the people in the system were below average.