How far can we go without studies and analysis?

I was wondering how far a chess player could get without reading books, studying positions, analysing matches and general memorizing...?

At what point, or level of rating is it no longer a "game"? And what rating can one reach without studying the game? Are there any historically famous chess players who didnt study and still "got far"?

Well Im sure that in modern time GMs have done their homework, but back in the days....I thought there might be some good story about an autistic kid or something...

But how hi can your rating get withouth studying? +1800 or +2000 or ?

There was Sultan Mir Khan who was an expert at a related Indian game -- came to England (as the indentured servant of a wealthy man) and startled the chess world with his seemingly effortless mastery of the game. Some top players set about training him for a world championship attempt but his serving duties got in the way, and he lacked that chip-on-my-shoulder ambition that seems to drive champions.

*Edit* Mir Sultan Khan is correct... Starting with Sultan makes it sound like he was a Sultan, lol! 

Bernard King vs

King Bernard

Nowhere. I'm dead serious. They couldn't even play their first game, because you have to have some memorization to know how the pieces move.

Ive never studied chess at all and I am around 1600 uscf. I have however played a ridiculous amount of otb chess and internet chess probably over the  last 10 years which is also the amount of years I have known how to move the pieces. On a sidenote I may have hit a wall though I don't really beat anyone over 1900 in tournaments and my rating may have peaked in the 1600  somethings. All I can do is keep playing and see. 

u can go far far away!

RandomFisher wrote:

I was wondering how far a chess player could get without reading books, studying positions, analysing matches and general memorizing...?

At what point, or level of rating is it no longer a "game"? And what rating can one reach without studying the game? Are there any historically famous chess players who didnt study and still "got far"?

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The conditions/scenario you are suggesting is what I call the school of hard knocks and learning the hard way by playing and losing a lot of games.

It is like choosing to examine each treein a forest individually until you realize it is a forest. It iswhat

I label as "inside out" style of learning. You will become a stronger player but not without alot of losses.

No study No progress. everybody can learn how the pieces move,a couple of checkmates and a few tricks and play a lot of games with friends and have fun,But if You want to get serious about chess You need take the books.

If you're young (U21), talented, play a lot and analyze a lot with stronger players, you can become fairly good (2000-2100 these days, I'd say) without any systematic study. If you remove one or more of these items, I don't know...

I have been playing for about a month now and by far chess is the hardest game I have ever played. I have had no studies on it and I yet to win my first match(1 game but the other players internet connection failed) so I think will get a book and study now, don't get me wrong I have learned a lot so I'm glad I'm not the only one. Lo!!!

Memory starts to decline at this age, so your ability to absorb new chess patterns is less good.

I play a lot of blitz [1500 to 1750 ] .Many opponents try to confuse you with unsound openings [ie bishop sac on f3 ].This is bad chess and very boring when you've encountered it 20 or 30 times.

It doesn't make sense to me that the memory of a 21 year old would start to decline at that point -- I'm pretty sure your mental ability is still increasing as it's still not at its peak. You peak at your mid to late 20s; perhaps technically you start declining in your 30s, but it's probably an extremely slow rate.

And even then, you do get somewhat wiser as you age, even if you lose mental quickness, so there are even some advantages.

Maybe not memory as the ability to remember things you've already learnt, but memory as the ability to encode new information in LTM or working memory which serves for chess calculation purposes.