Is it realistic?

Great, thanks a lot for the info Mr. Phailure ;-)

I wanna be Jackie Onasis.

You bet woodshover can be an FM in less than a year? Not only does that dog refuse to hunt, but it doesn't even exist.

Same thing happened to me, only... Replace "rating points" with "pounds" and also replace "rub it in your faces" with "come back to present delightful .JPG's" - I 'spose you could also replace the "FM" with "being really drunk" :/

You may find this attempt at characterizing-rating-levels informative.

"If you reach for the moon, you may land back on earth, but if you reach for the sun, you may land on the moon."  If he makes the goal to be that good at chess, in an even shorter amount of time, i think he might get there in less time that he anticipated.

http://www.jeremysilman.com/book_reviews_js/js_rapid_chess_improv.htm

"...Mr. de la Maza is a player who (at around 1321) suffered badly from elementary tactical oversights and, rather than lie back and accept eternal misery, decided to do something about it. Creating his own tactical study plan, he followed it with incredible verve and leapt up “…400 USCF rating points in my first year of tournament play and almost 300 rating points in my second year of play.” This, and a little luck (you always need some luck to win a tournament!), helped him win the U2000 section of the 2001 World Open, which netted him a $10,000.00 prize. He then retired from active play with a 2041 rating..."

So basically 8 hours of tactics training every day with ie CT-Art for a couple of years should get an average player rated around 1500 now most of the way to becoming a FM.

Simple.

yes, with enough determination you can accomplish the things you want, and depending on how realistic the time frame, also in the time that you want. 3 years is a very realistic time frame.

We are talking about woodshover. Don't you ever read woodshover?

And if you reach for something within your grasp you may actually get it.

Actually, I was talking about a guy rated at 1500 who was posting in the International Chess School thread. He said he was planning on getting to FM withen three years.

Probably better to be studying and practicing right now, if you wanna make it, guy.

(the dillemma in a nutshell innit?)

 Did you read the post right above yours?

Thanks for that artfizz, I'll have a look.

I think one point some people are missing is that going up in ranking is not a linear process but exponential. Going from 700 to 1150 is MUCH easier than going from 1150 to 1600 and MUCH MUCH MUCH easier than going from 1600 to 2050.

In three years? Maybe.

Hahahahahahah...haha...ha.  And everyone is special and wonderful.

You ever see anybody hit a curveball?  That takes talent.

Does it count if you're determined to mouth the emptiest platitudes possible? Is that proof of whatever you aim for you can reach?

Hahah, good on you, Woodshover, you almost had me feeling a little bit embarrased there, seeing you allready said that twice :D

And now for something completely different: If it is not your own aspiration, why do you even care to raise the question? If you don't mind me asking, that is? :)

Is it a crime to be curious about something that doesn't concern you personally. I know there are a lot of people who are only curious about things that have to do with themselves, but I'm not one of them. Besides, I DO spend two or three hours a day doing Chess Mentor, and TT.

I think you mean it's logarithmic, not exponential.

what are you talking about? the very foundation of this topic is built around the fact that he is NOT reaching for something easily within his grasp, but something far greater. I said by continueing to reach for this far goal, he will find that hehas gotten a LOT better at chess, and can achieve his goals even sooner. What is this meager "within his grasp" you expect him to dump his FM goal and go for?