Road to becoming a U.S. National Master.

Hello to all of the ardent chess players out there! Where to begin–well, I’m relatively new to chess. I only began to play and learn the game (much more formally) just this year. Before I get into the main topic at hand in this post, I would like to extend my gratitude to this game (and perhaps to the broader chess community in general for popularizing it), as it has helped me to improve my memorization and analytical skills a lot better–as it continues to do so. Alright, so I’m 20 years old and my beginning chess rating is roughly between 650–850. With this in mind, my questions are as follows: 1.) Do you think it is practical, or in the very least, possible to attain the aforementioned title above as a long term goal (say within the next 10, 15, or even 20 years)–given my very late start or introduction? 2.) If so, then how many tournament games would it take me, or someone similar, to achieve such a goal. 3.) If not, then (given that if I seriously study the game and devote much time to it) what do you think is the highest chess rating (or rate estimate) I could attain by the age of 25, for example? Thank you for your time, as I greatly appreciate any thoughtful responses that derive from this post. May all of you have a good rest of your day or night! :)

My mistake on the 3rd & final question–please pay no attention to “if not” at the beginning. (Not to say that I definitely could or couldn’t achieve this proposed goal, but I digress) Also, when I say “tournament games”, I mostly mean OTB (Over the board) rated chess games. Thanks again!

No.

Yes.

As is typical of any new person in any field, they ask poor questions.

This is a poor question because there's no magic bullet. There's no number of books, or number of games, or number of hours, etc. You get a master title by scoring roughly 50% against masters. So play and learn.

 

5 years, you're already an adult, I assume with some mixture of a job / school / relationship commitments...

Realistic is like, 1200 -- because you wont waste much time on chess, and instead you'll have a job and family.

If you're passionate about chess and don't have a competitive job or a meaningful relationship then maybe 1600.

If you're passionate and sacrifice other things, then maybe 2200.

People will undoubtedly disagree with me, and for various reasons, but there's my two cents.

I'm not a master, but my online rating here is 2200 which confuses some people into thinking I am

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The point is that I didn't begin chess to "be a master" and I don't think real masters did either.

People who love chess play a lot, and love to learn and improve. They do it passionately even if they're not promised fame and fortune.

So when a new player asks what they can expect after 5 or 10 years of hard work... it's not a good sign My first goal was to be 1300. My plan was to quit after 1300. My motivation was that no matter how much I improved, there would always be someone better to test my limits against, and no matter how old I got, I could go to a tournament. I wasn't interested in fame or fortune (I went to my first tournament at age 21 by the way, so I came into chess late too).

If you chase a rating, you'll definitely improve, and have fun... but comparatively you wont get very far... that's my two cents (again). Alternatively, if you chase knowledge and if you genuinely enjoy chess, then you'll go far. 20 years old is not too old. I didn't get a title, but it's not like I did everything I could (or even close).  You could... but focus on learning, not on a rating

I stopped playing USCF in 1973 after I had met the requirements to become a NM. [liked correspondence chess much more]  [because of a health problem]

Back in the day I played in many USCF chess tournaments [and did well]--that is one little secret]  The other secret was to find out and fix your mistakes. At you current rating [1200?] you are making as lot of mistakes every game. You shjould emphasize is to find your mistakes--you will need help with this probably. write down your mistakes and try very hard not to repeat your mistakes.  Also, of course, use all the available learning tools--there are a heck of a lot of them.  I would guess in about 5 years you might become a NM.