Class A player, how many hours to become one?

As the poster above me stated, the goal of the Russian school was to produce GMs. And once again, they did not have the technology or transportation etc that we do.

I agree that people learn differently. That is why I post a counter-argument everytime you recommend someone to read 100 books in order to improve their chess.

In rated OTB long games, you have to use a specific set of skills which you usually don't train in isolation such as : focusing for many hours and deal with fatigue / concentration lapses, taking practical decisions vs. looking for the optimal moves, choosing when and how far to calculate, dealing with emotional blows (ie. unexpected moves, mistakes), time management, risk taking, etc. It's a bit like marathon running : your body needs the experience to learn how to best regulate itself on long distances.

Besides, because of the greater emotional involvment in OTB play, the feedback loop is much stronger (desire to learn after a loss -never again !- and long term memory triggered by emotional markers).

You are right hicetnunc, and perfectly explained. Great post.

+1

This is what Team Vote Chess discussions do.  I have helped revitalize/organize these opening groups [link], besides the ones I'm currently in.  If your opening repertoire includes one of them, I advise you join one and participate.  It simulates the same interactions.  Of course, doing it face-to-face is much better, but this is the next best thing.

@Musikamole.  Tactics trainer helps with tactics, to a degree at least.  You have to learn additional skills to become a OTB player like getting an opening repetoire and learning what best to play against an opponent.  If you practice TT all the time, you might get to 3000 TT but you need more skills for OTB.

Playing chess well is not an academic subject like history or science.  It is more of a skill, like playing a guitar.  I have listened to tens of thousands of songs over hundreds of hours since the 1970's.  Shouldn't I be able to play a guitar as well?  What if I read more about music?  Studied it's history, composers, bands, lyrics, etc.?  Wouldn't my guitar playing improve then?  Unlikely.  No, good guitar playing, like chess or any other skill, requires practice.  Or, to be more specific, what is termed deep, deliberate practice.  

That's a very interesting analogy. I learned to play guitar by getting a book that showed the fingerings of the chords. Something like learning basic opening repertoire. Once I had a passable handle on the chords, I started to play along with some songs I particularly liked, and/or were fairly easy to play (Neil Young came in handy for this). I played and played till my fingers started to bleed. I slowly took on more difficult, complicated songs, especially those requiring barre chords -- no easy task when you're learning on a 12-string, something I do not recommend -- and fingerpicking. After a year of pretty constant practicing I was able to play just about any popular song I heard. I never had lessons per se, but I joined a workshop held by a guy who owned a guitar store. Most of the people there were considerably better than I was, and quite generous in offering tips for proper technique, something I would never have learned just playing tunes on my own. This would be something like playing OTB at chess clubs, as opposed to simply playing online.

Today I am a much better guitarist than chess player, although I have played both for years now. The difference was that I really wanted to get good at guitar, whereas chess (until fairly recently) was just a game I played against friends. What Hector calls "deep, deliberate practice" is absolutely essential, and something you really have to want to do.

Hey, thanks for reading my crazy, long winded post #70! Good Grief.

Yes. I did read a lot about chess, did far more reading than playing. It's a trap I fall into now and then. Maybe instead of being a music teacher, I should have been an analyst for the CIA. I love thinking much more than doing.

Funny how you mentioned the guitar. I was a performance major in college,with an emphasis on jazz guitar, spending thousands of hours practicing and performing. I really couldn't tell you much about the history of the guitar, or how one is even made, or even talk about the techy stuff, like how the pickups are configured, and what parts go into making them. I just want to play it!

Yep. Gotta play more chess, and study less, maybe even take a break from study and just play the game. Apply what I have learned, and the only thing outside of playing could be going over my games, finding the mistakes and correcting them, doing my best not to repeat the same mistakes over and over again.

Well, considering you are playing a guitar in your avatar and your profile mentions you are a music teacher I figured the illustration would strike a chord. (*winces at own pun*)

Hmm...I googled the three words - deep -deliberate - practice - and found a lot of this: deep, deliberate practice, with many articles on the subject. I typed those three words into the Amazon search window and came up empty for books with this title. Hmm...

I get this question often from parents of my students, "how long should my kid practice each day, or how often should my kid practice each week. I always say this, "it's more important to practice a little bit each day, than to practice for several hours in one sitting per week."

It's more about frequency and quality, not quantity. I made the following practicing mistake today, attempting to solve ten tactics puzzles while being sleepy. I should have taken a nap, stared off into space, anything but trying to solve chess puzzles!

1. It took too long

2. I probably didn't do any burning of those tactic patterns into my brain.

3. No quality. It was a waste of time. I was not attentive.

---------------

I found this online regarding deep, deliberate practice:

1. Practice Regulary -

I have been telling the parents of my students this every year of my career.

2. Arrange Multiple, Shorter Stints -

Yep. Been telling folks it's better to practice 15 - 30 minutes each day (these are elementary students, not college kids), than to spend 1-2 hours once a week.

3. Take Breaks - Never mentioned that, perhaps because I am not recommending 1 hour of practice per day.

4. Increase Gradually -

Yes. Fingers on violin strings get sore in the beginning, until calluses are formed. For wind instruments, face muscles surrounding the lips get tired fast in the beginning, getting stronger over time, IF the practice is regular.

5. Live a Balanced Life -

Do elementary kids live a balanced life? Not many. TV and Video Games often win. Boys, if they can get away with it, and some girls, will spend 4 hours a day playing Halo, Call of Duty...

There are several books actually on the subject as well as science papers written on it.  Lately, I've been actually mulling over making a blog with an the entire list I've read (about a dozen sources or so).  However, one of the best books to explain it is The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle.

Instead of "deep deliberate practice", try "deliberate practice" and you should get plenty of relevant info.

Here is an article about chess with many links to other books and research papers:

http://calnewport.com/blog/2010/01/06/the-grandmaster-in-the-corner-office-what-the-study-of-chess-experts-teaches-us-about-building-a-remarkable-life/

I'm 1500-1600 now after about a year. During that year I have played roughly 1000 hours. I'm guessing I need another 4000 hours to even get near 2000.

9 out of 10 US chess players will never become a class A player, no matter how many hours they put in. 

It's all in the statistics. Sorry. Let the screaming begin...but it won't matter or change the truth: 9 out of 10 of you reading this will NEVER become a Class A player, no matter who you hire, how much you study, or whatever you sacrifice on your chess altar. 

If everyone at the 1700 to 1800 level was hiring, studying, and sacrificing, then you'd be correct, >90% wouldn't make it.

1800 is hugely impressive compared to your average casual player who has probably never heard of en passant.  But many players don't have to hire, study, and sacrifice for that level of play.  You can do it in your spare time, while holding a job and taking care of a family (although it takes most many years to get there when that's the case). 

The closer you get to professional players though, the more your competition is studying and sacrificing like madmen... that's the level most will never reach regardless of what they do.

...still I suspect the 10% who succeeded probably didn't care that much about the stats. Maybe they didn't care that much about their rating either, but simply loved the game and were happy to make some progress.

But, yes class A is a good level, that's for sure.