Do you have to be a gifted prodigy in order to be a FIDE rated Chess Grandmaster?
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To be honest, there is virtually no chance of someone getting to grandmaster if they aren’t already good(>2000) at a young age
I don’t think so! What you need is a talented coaching staff to do the heavy lifting. Hahaha all this “gifted” kids have lots of help from professionals. The only thing you need is the passion to learn and a talent on spending money💵. Thank your parent hahahaha
Dec 11, 2022
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#5
madvidak wrote:
What are one's chances if they're not particularly gifted at Chess?
Zero.
Chess is the second most played sport worldwide behind fütball, and there are only about 1200 active GMs in the world. That is the 1% of the 1% of the 1% of the 1% of players, and you just have to be a genetic freak to achieve it.
However, that is expected. No one can be a professional sport athlete without some talent, so it stands to reason that a chess player would not be an exception.
Nice ramble. Only the facts are a bit off here and there. And everywhere.
Dec 11, 2022
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#7
I went from 400 to over 1200 in two years so I should be a Grandmaster by the time I'm 66 years old. I'll be the oldest one. 😁 Seriously folks, hey, I'll be here all week, played all my life, never knew what was going on, studied in my 30s, played the Kasparov computer, Chess Club, finally honing all my knowledge on here and hope to play at the 1500 level. I'd say being a prodigy definitely helps but there's always the nature versus nurture argument. You absolutely have to study this game in order to play it well at all and I think it comes down to how smart you are, how good you are solving puzzles and how much study you put into the game.
Its not about just natural talent for a given activity. It's about practice, and your own character, determination.
Hikaru is not particularly gifted or talented when it comes to Chess but he's still a top player because he puts in the work and he has a solid foundation.
Dec 11, 2022
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#9
TotallyFancy wrote:
magipi: your saying that everything I said is wrong and my facts are all wrong care to shed some supplemental light or are you just going to say im wrong without explaining yourself bc if my info is wrong I would like to amend it. If you dont care to do that then well...keep coming back
Thankyou,
TotallyFancy
A lot of your info is wrong.
Ben Finegold should have / could have been an elite GM, but he made the choose to stay behind in America and promote the game of chess rather than pursue a life of a GM. When he had his chance, the only chance to be a GM was to travel to Europe. (This is what Bobby Fischer did)
He became a GM at 40 not because of some random luck, but because chess had advanced in America enough that he could get his norms. He was the strongest American born American chess player at the time.
Dec 11, 2022
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#11
Someone may be able to catch a football naturally the first time they try. Kaching $$$. Chess players have to read a book and lose hundreds of games before they can even get near the football.
Woah hold up, Hikaru is pure talent. He is so talented that he disregard opening theory. While Fabiano is just a hard worker(pure theoretician)
Dec 11, 2022
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#13
People are so attracted to the idea they can be anything if they just work hard and dedicate themselves. And it sounds plausible because a truth is contained inside of it (that hard work and dedication make a difference in things). But you’re talking about being the best of the best, which is a totally different matter. Why is it so important to be a GM in chess? Why do you want to dedicate your life (in theory) to a lonely pursuit that repels females and doesn’t pay any bills?? Just enjoy the game lol😂
TotallyFancy wrote:
magipi: your saying that everything I said is wrong and my facts are all wrong care to shed some supplemental light or are you just going to say im wrong without explaining yourself bc if my info is wrong I would like to amend it. If you dont care to do that then well...keep coming back
Thankyou,
TotallyFancy
So you mean that you were serious all along? When you talked about 11 year old GMs, you were serious? Or the nonsense about religion and neurolinguists? Or the nonsense about chess books with no diagrams? I don't even know what else to mention, every sentence of your rambling is a gem.
TotallyFancy wrote:
in short according to lazlo prodigys are not born but are made and forged out of iron and board games.
If that is true there would be hundreds of thousands of chess grandmasters. Judit Polgar is not the only one to be taught and trained in the game of chess as a child but she is the exception when it comes to becoming a strong grandmaster. Many children are taught from a very young age and trained in chess who never become strong players. I feel sorry that so many are deceiving themselves into thinking they can become something they have no talent for.
You must both start at a young age and be among the most gifted players of the youth.
premio53 wrote:
TotallyFancy wrote:
in short according to lazlo prodigys are not born but are made and forged out of iron and board games.
If that is true there would be hundreds of thousands of chess grandmasters. Judit Polgar is not the only one to be taught and trained in the game of chess as a child but she is the exception when it comes to becoming a strong grandmaster. Many children are taught from a very young age and trained in chess who never become strong players. I feel sorry that so many are deceiving themselves into thinking they can become something they have no talent for.
The kind of childhood the Polgar sisters experienced was extreme and unique.
I doubt that many children have been raised in the same manner.
To raise a child as Laszlo did, your child would have no formal schooling whatsoever. Education was comprised of: chess studies, every day, all day long.
Whenever they left the home, their socialization with others was supervised by Laszlo, and limited to chess-specific venues and chess-specific activities (so as to protect the integrity of his "experiment") ...
Most children are exposed to chess in a more reasonable (and arguably "healthier" way): by balancing their chess exposure with their school lives and their social lives. This means most children will not likely reach the levels that the Polgar sisters did ... though that's also, perhaps, a good thing.
IronSteam1 wrote:
premio53 wrote:
TotallyFancy wrote:
in short according to lazlo prodigys are not born but are made and forged out of iron and board games.
If that is true there would be hundreds of thousands of chess grandmasters. Judit Polgar is not the only one to be taught and trained in the game of chess as a child but she is the exception when it comes to becoming a strong grandmaster. Many children are taught from a very young age and trained in chess who never become strong players. I feel sorry that so many are deceiving themselves into thinking they can become something they have no talent for.
The kind of childhood the Polgar sisters experienced was extreme and unique.
I doubt that many children have been raised in the same manner.
To raise a child as Laszlo did, your child would have no formal schooling whatsoever. Education was comprised of: chess studies, every day, all day long.
Whenever they left the home, their socialization with others was supervised by Laszlo, and limited to chess-specific venues and chess-specific activities (so as to protect the integrity of his "experiment") ...
Most children are exposed to chess in a more reasonable (and arguably "healthier" way): by balancing their chess exposure with their school lives and their social lives. This means most children will not likely reach the levels that the Polgar sisters did ... though that's also, perhaps, a good thing.
Hogwash. Judit Polgar was an extremely talented player who happened to learn chess at an early age just as hundreds of thousands of other players have. I know many players I have played in tournaments with who have spent many years and hours of study who never become even close to strong players. I know other players who learned chess on their own with no formal training who have reached master level with seemingly little effort.
premio53 wrote:
Hogwash. Judit Polgar was an extremely talented player who happened to learn chess at an early age just as hundreds of thousands of other players have. I know many players I have played in tournaments with who have spent many years and hours of study who never become even close to strong players. I know other players who learned chess on their own with no formal training who have reached master level with seemingly little effort.
I'm not sure you're fully aware of Judit Polgar's childhood. She wasn't just a "talented player who happened to learn chess".
She and her sisters were conceived for the purpose of Laszlo's experiment - an attempt to prove that one could deliberately create prodigies. His wife was a willing participant in the matter.
Do some players excel quicker than others? Absolutely. But reaching grandmaster generally requires a unique, chess-focused childhood. Adolescents who are able to reach grandmaster without some kind of chess-specific focus in their lives would be ... quite rare. Probably unheard of.
IronSteam1 wrote:
premio53 wrote:
Hogwash. Judit Polgar was an extremely talented player who happened to learn chess at an early age just as hundreds of thousands of other players have. I know many players I have played in tournaments with who have spent many years and hours of study who never become even close to strong players. I know other players who learned chess on their own with no formal training who have reached master level with seemingly little effort.
I'm not sure you're fully aware of Judit Polgar's childhood. She wasn't just a "talented player who happened to learn chess".
She and her sisters were conceived for the purpose of Laszlo's experiment - an attempt to prove that one could deliberately create prodigies. His wife was a willing participant in the matter.
Do some players excel quicker than others? Absolutely. But reaching grandmaster generally requires a unique, chess-focused childhood. Adolescents who are able to reach grandmaster without some kind of chess-specific focus in their lives would be ... quite rare. Probably unheard of.
It doesn't matter for what purpose they were conceived for. If Judit had been born slow of learning, we would have never heard of her name. Bobby Fischer was born for the purpose of being a latchkey kid, and yet he along with Judit were able to excel above 99% of all chess players in the world. Fischer never had the grandmaster teachers and software Carlsen had and many others of this generation and yet he could not be denied because of his environment.
Judit seems to love chess. No indication she was driven against her will to learn it like a slave. The same with her sisters.
What are one's chances if they're not particularly gifted at Chess? What are some grandmasters that only started getting into chess after their young years?