How do you get your rating over 2000?

-Go over every single game you play that's slower (15 minutes per side and above ) with an engine,  naturally, play a lot more of those, limit your blitz if for no other reason than to play more slower chess.

-Learn your opening by heart, but dont overkill it.

-go over Silman's endgame manual, probably all the endgame knowledge you will need.

-Do lots of chesstempo tactics, this is what made me jump from 1800 to 2200 fairly quickly. make sure you calculate every sideline, and if you got it wrong, see why your solution was wrong.

that's pretty much it. You can go over master games, do compositions, watch instructive videos on strategy etc, but this is all gravy. 

sorry, but you will never become a GM. according to FIDE there are more than 600 million chess players worldwide. in the history of FIDE they have endowed a totoal of 1742 GM titles. do the math.

sorry but that is EXACTLY how math works. you are never going to be a GM. better learn to deal with it.

realistic and pessimistic are two entirely different things. i am happy to make a wager if you like.

not really. if you are horrible at baseball and your goal is to make the major leagues, you are very unlikely to achieve your goal. but in chess the odds are even worse.

If you're struggling with something and your goal is to become better, you shouldn't worry about what's possible and what's not possible. It's just a waste of time.

No one can say definitively whether someone who aspires to become a GM will become one. In the vast majority of cases, people obviously don't become GMs but a lot of that comes down to their unwillingness to do the work, study properly, adopt a proper attitude towards losing, not get caught up in hypotheticals etc.

In my early chess playing I asked a GM how I could become one. He said, "You have to lose a lot."

If you ever reach the point where you have the potential to become a GM, things like math, statistics and arguing won't even cross your mind because you'll be too busy improving your game.

In regards to the actual forum request, I always recommend players focus heavily on tactics when they're first learning. Knowing opening theory 20 moves deep doesn't help you if your opponent deviates and you have no idea how to punish him.

Most games at the lower levels are just an exchange of acute game ending blunders. These can be minimized by developing board vision and studying tactics. Beyond that, study weak vs strong pieces, pawn structure, endgames then opening.

I don't typically reply in forums because it tends to be a waste of time but some people seemed to genuinely want input so I thought I would.

in 1994 donald trump (age 48) asked GM pal benko if he (trump) could become a GM within 2 years if he dedicated himself to chess. benko replied, "no. for you to become a GM you would have to be reborn " benko knew the odds were so incredibly small, they were effectively zero. unfortunately for @chessislikefire, his odds are the same--effectively zero. @pawlings offers excellent advice. dont worry about titles. just focus on improvement.

I would say that a player can desire a title, GM or otherwise. The focus should be entirely on improvement. Maybe you'll achieve it. Maybe you won't.

In general, people don't know what they're talking about. There are people with the victim mindset who will tell you to not even try because it's hopeless.

There are people with a naive mindset that will tell you it's easy and you're guaranteed it.

No one knows what they're talking about. Just focus on improving. Become very okay with losses.

telling you that you are not going to become a GM is not berating you. just like telling you that you will never win the lottery is not berating you. its simply stating a fact. if this helps motivate you to improve your chess game, that's great. you clearly have no clue what is involved in becoming a GM. again, i would be happy to make a wager on this and i will even give you generous odds. DM me if you are interested.

Well, my personal opinion is that these are not good reasons to become a GM. It is a long road and your main focus is money and status, it will not sustain you.

Not to mention, GMs don't make that much money. There are much much easier ways to make money.

I would also like to point out that I never said someone couldn't achieve the GM title but you seem to not wish to talk anymore so good luck.

quire true. donald trump has a lot of money. but GM pal benko said he will never become a GM in this lifetime.

yes. it was me who said you will never become a GM, not@pawlings.

how old are you?

have you ever hear of josh waitzkin? he was a young chess phenom from nyc. they made a movie about him called 'searching for bobby fischer.' when josh was 7 years old he was far better at chess than you are now. and then his parents got him some world-class coaching including bruce pandolfini. (google him if you don't know who he is.) he got even better as a result and became a top player. but do you know what he never achieved? GM status. so if he cant achieve this with all the advantages--natural talent, motivation, world class coaching, etc., how do you intend to?

Waitzkin;s reasons for quitting were complicated, part of it was an incompatible coach, the pressures of fame etc. He probably would have reached GM if he wanted it. ITs not the best example.

i dont think so, but answer me this. of the hundreds if not thousands of young chess players on this site that think they will someday acheive GM status, how many do you think actually will? you're an NM, and i dont know anything else about you. yet i would be happy to bet you that you never become a GM. because you are still miles away from it, even as an NM!!