How good can you become without anyone coaching you?

You didn't learn chess as  a  kid, you decided to learn chess when you became 20s old, no one is coatching you, you didn't learn how to recognize patterns, tachtical shots, you didn't learn how to see the next 8 moves. You decided to learn 1 opening on your own. few chess traps, what is the highest elo rating you can reach?

You see i'm a computer science student, so I'm not trying to make a career in chesss, therefore i'm not investing any money in it, no coatches whatsoever, I just wanna be near 2000, it's high rating, I'm currently playing an FM who has a rating of 1900...

I can see 3 or 4 moves ahead, sometimes 5 if it's not a complicated game, i know the basics of all the opening, trying to learn the njadorf in details (but i think njadrof is too cliche lol :P)

i'm curently 23, started learning chess when i was 20, how high can i expect my rating to become if work on improving my game?

As you're young enough, 2000 FIDE is within reach.

A chess coach, and on a more general note, any help from stronger players, just makes things quicker and easier.

Hmm..... you didn't mention whether or not you are willing to put in the practice time that it will take. Not spending money on a coach is fine, in my opinion, but you will have to study tactics, have a chessboard out and go through grandmaster games, borrow books from the library and do the work. Use the chessboard and go through whatever book you're reading, and move the pieces along with the notation. Also, move the pieces through variations that are presented, and see the difference in the line played and what the author suggests in the way of other possibilities. I won't recommend particular books, we beat that horse to death constantly in the books & equipment forum. Analyze your own games, especially after a loss. Find out where you became worse than your opponent in that game. Learn from each loss. It takes work, but it could be done relatively cheaply. You will eventually want some books to be on your bookshelf at all times, so that you can pull them down and reference them any time you want. 

Anyhoo, if you put in the work, I would think you could attain 2000. It won't come quickly, but if you work at it, it could happen in a few years. It truly depends on how much time you have to spend daily on the various things you need to do.

I'll keep that in mind as a motivation, especially when those arrogant (good) players in my other forum keep telling me that it's no use to begin with chess as an adult. There's one who's says that I'll never be able to climb over average rating (about elo 1500). we'll see in about 5 years :)

@threadstarter: you don't need a coach if you know how to study right, if you read the right books and know how to read them. but it could take some time to figure it out. and you'll waste probably some time on your way. I make the mistake that I waste a lot of time with thinking about how to study instead of actually studying. don't make the same mistake^^

ah, and it has been said so often here on the board: don't waste so much time with openings.

It might or might not be. Could you point me towards a FIDE rated player who got a > 2000 rating at age 30+ with a first FIDE rating under say 1800 ? I'm not sure there are so many of them.

I've never read -- and a quick search turned up nothing -- that Capablanca had a coach, although he would certainly have played strong players and discussed the game with them afterwards, which is a kind of informal coaching.

I have more than 30 years, and I have less than a year since I started, I do not know that it is an opening, and my points are going pretty well, I think.

At 6 months of starting, I played in a tournament (open) in my country and won the third place.

If I had started at age 20, had had 2000 points, because I had no the problems I have now.

Watch this game:

I think 2000 is possible for the great majority of people if they have the right mindset.  It doesn't matter that you started at 20 years old.  But you have to be willing to study and learn and put in some work.  If you just play blitz for fun, never analyze your games, never read books, then you're not going to get much better.

Think critically about the games after they're over.  The focus isn't if you won or lost, it's what you can learn from it.  Why did the winner win?  Why did the loser lose?  Exactly when did the evaluations change?

I think it would be very hard though if you never read a book or talked to a stronger player at all.  When you go to tournaments it's good to even takes notes during the post mortem.  What did you opponent suggest and think during the game?  Even if you disagree or they lost is there any bit of truth to the variation/idea they had?  When you read books take notes too or mark important pages or games and revisit them.  When you analyse your tournament games mark interesting ones and analyze them again a year later to see if you can find new lessons.

Anyway, I do think it's possible.  Good luck :)

there goes my dream.....

Hey you look familliar your that guy who was asking how to become a Grandmaster by only playing on chess.com on yahoo answers?!

"As a chess.com member, how many chess points do you have to have in order to be called a GM? I have seen members having 2000+ points and not having a tittle, others have 1900 and have a NM title... what do you have to do to earn it? What tournaments do you have to participate in, and so on... :D :D"

Your ambitions sure have deflated the past few days!

That's because chess.com ratings are pure bullsh*t.  I'm rated 2081 USCF, 2064 FIDE, and 1741 here on Chess.com.

You've got many factors, like losing won or drawn games that would never happen over the board due to the 5-second delay or 30-second increment, connection problems, etc.

Also, games here mean bopkis.  I could care less if I lose.  If I'm studying an opening, I'll play it on here before I play it over the board.

Therefore, to me, ratings here mean nothing.  2200s could be 2200 because they have a better connection and quick fingers on a mouse.

Without a coach, you can probably reach about 2200 or 2300 over the board with the right motiviation, and studying a ton of books.  How high can you get without spending a dime on anything?  Maybe 1900.

the sky is the limit if you are ready to work hard. I mean really hard.

that means e.g. being able to know which color e4 is without thinking.

can you tell me what color the square c7 is without looking?
IM Daniel Rensch had a video about learning the basics to become great.

the basics that many skip because they don't want to work that hard.
Achieving Full Board Awareness

...and BobbyDK isn't even telling you about the ultra-hard stuff, like which diagonal is longer : a2-g8 or the b1-h7 ? 

...but this is master stuff, indeed 

I think especially since we are many that haven't played chess the right way before we were adults. The problem is we go right to learning the advanced things instead learning to get the basics right to get a foundation to learn things on. I think that is really important. therefore a video like the one from Mr. Rensch is a good place to start.

Joking aside, I think you're fundamentally right. There isn't a lot of chess material adapted to adult beginners.

Without coaching will establish one's innate or natural rating so is no bad thing. Then able to assess accurately the impact of coaching/study on performance afterwards.

When starting-off just playing lots of chess is a good idea.

i got to 1573 elo in 7 months nuff said

I'm playing chess for couple months and my rating is 1400. 

Even though this is nearly 2 years old...

The way the OP talked about it, it seemed like he was saying chess would be a very casual hobby for him.  I would have told him about 1300.  Yes, with dedication 2000 is possible, but IMO that wasn't his tone at all.

Club are full of this kind of player.  Just give them a pet opening, a few tactical themes (forks and pins) and then leave them alone and let them enjoy the game!  Nothing wrong with that... but worlds away from 2000 elo.

Read the recent chessbase interview with Jobava.

Jobava reccommends reading Botvinnik and Alekhine game books.

I have a coach because its nice to have a higher rated player teach you how to analyze so that you can put those skills to use but if you cant afford/dont want to, you can still get good.

http://en.chessbase.com/post/living-life-the-jobi-way-1-2