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Started in Chess at 40, and Became a Chess Master

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RoaringPawn
RoaringPawn
Jun 12, 2019
0
#61
physics_girl wrote:

Back on topic:

Why not? If you want it and will devote the time required to do it, surely you can reach your goals.

I think mental maturity helps, you need to be able to focus like none other.

Absolutely.

Focus is important, if we only knew what exactly to focus ongrin.png

I'll give you an example. The very chess beginning, Chess Square One on Day One. Maybe the critical time for one's further ascent in chess, as many, many entrants never be moving beyond the moves.

Why? Because teachers make them focus on, erm, apparently not the right thing in the very beginning as many develop a serious disease, chessboard blindness.

Thanks for commenting @physics_girl!

Physicist and chess

RoaringPawn
RoaringPawn
Jun 12, 2019
0
#62
physics_girl wrote:

Back on topic:

Why not? If you want it and will devote the time required to do it, surely you can reach your goals.

I think mental maturity helps, you need to be able to focus like none other.

Back to the subject of focus, let's focus on focus.

Here's an indication that chess teachers may not focus and make their students not focus either on what it should be at Square One, Day One, coming from one of the greatest chess thinkers (Shakhmatny glasok, 1929)

Any idea what Nimzovich wanted to communicate to us? Lack of focus on something other than moves first, perhaps?

kamalakanta
kamalakanta
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Jun 12, 2019
0
#63
MickinMD wrote:

I think it's impossible unless something in your past, beginning in your teen years at the latest, has conditioned your mind to do things much like what is needed to become a chess master.

There are people who have become masters late in life, but they were all very good players in their young days.

On the other hand, the same is true of great music composers except for Tchaikovsky, who didn't get into serious music until his late teens and went on to become one of the greatest composers of all time.

Still, "late teens" is a lot earlier than 40.

Personally, I'm only excellent at one thing. I have a very high IQ and when I was 12 years-old told my parents I wanted to be a chemist. 16 years later I was Chief Chemist of Process Research for a subsidiary of Dow Chemical, a couple years after getting a graduate degree in Chemistry from Illinois Tech on a scholarship and graduate teaching assistantship.

I have never been better than the 1600's in OTB chess, but never played competitive chess until my late 20's.  I did not spend the hours/day for years needed to improve close to master, but if I did it would be hard to get there.

And I'm a decent piano player, but I will NEVER be as good as some of my teacher's teenagers. I began playing piano for the first time in my mid-50's and benefited from studying for several years under an award-winning virtuoso in the Adult Program at the world-class Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University. I reached the point where I auditioned and qualified for several consecutive years to play in the ACE Recital at Peabody, playing pieces by Chopin, Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, etc. and being complimented on my play by people like opera Grand Diva Hyunah Yu.  But I'll never play at a "master" level - I started way too late.

I would point out that you don't have to aspire to be a master to enjoy chess.  You can enjoy the challenge and joy of playing a good game as long as the wins come often enough. And you can try new things: last year I played the King's Gambit twice as White for the only time in my life just for the thrill of it - and won both games.  At age 68, it's one the things that keeps my mind sharp.

 

Hi! I am not even a "decent" piano player, but I get so much joy from the piano! 

I am able to express myself enough on the piano to get joy.....I use it as an instrument for arranging and composition, and I dedicate myself to spiritual music. This is a great source of joy for me.

Here is a CD of some of my instrumental arrangements of spiritual songs:

https://www.radiosrichinmoy.org/destined/

Colin20G
Colin20G
Jun 12, 2019
0
#64

Nope.

The neuroplaticity you need in order to do that has been gone for years in the case of a 40 years old.

Most people who keep posting these threads apparently vastly underestimate the skill required to have a chess title (even FM is huge) and unfortunately don't know the game already provides a very rich and challenging experience even if you far below title.

Just try to get 1600, 1700, 1800 etc

RoaringPawn
RoaringPawn
Jun 12, 2019
0
#65

If I'm not mistaken, this is the country estate of the family of our Earl and chess player who learned chess at 40 and became a Master

kamalakanta
kamalakanta
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Jun 12, 2019
0
#66

I actually am an MN (Master of Nothing)!

RoaringPawn
RoaringPawn
Jun 12, 2019
0
#67
Colin20G wrote:

Nope.

The neuroplaticity you need in order to do that has been gone for years in the case of a 40 years old.

Most people who keep posting these threads apparently vastly underestimate the skill required to have a chess title (even FM is huge) and unfortunately don't know the game already provides a very rich and challenging experience even if you far below title.

Just try to get 1600, 1700, 1800 etc

Bon jour, my French chess friend!

How about le Compte Jean Henri Marie de Villeneuve-Esclapon?😜

RoaringPawn
RoaringPawn
Jun 12, 2019
0
#68
baconandeggz wrote:

yes providing you live in a self proclaimed territory you call a country.

You’re talkin’ to me?

You must have mixed up some things, my friend.

Montenegro is much older than you think. First printing press in 1494, a couple of years after Gutenberg. It is the only free territory in the Balkans during 4-century Muslim yoke.

And Frank Lloyd Wright was our son-in-law😜

 

MustangMate
MustangMate
Closed: Inactive
Jun 12, 2019
0
#69
kamalakanta wrote:
physics_girl wrote:

Back on topic:

Why not? If you want it and will devote the time required to do it, surely you can reach your goals.

I think mental maturity helps, you need to be able to focus like none other.

 

Agreed.

If it weren't for delusions of grandeur, chesscom membership would surely never surpass but a few thousand. 

congrandolor
congrandolor
Jun 12, 2019
0
#70
WitchA wrote:
No, from around the age of 25 onwards, cognitive decline begins to set in. It becomes impossible to form new neural networks and existing ones deteriorate. White matter in the brain turns to black and the myelin that facilitates electric signals to travel across neurons breaks apart. It’s estimated that a 40 year old iq of 100 is equal to a 20 year old iq of 80.

A 40 year old doesn’t have the ability to learn anything new beyond the very basics. If you had a rudimentary understanding of neuroscience, you’d realize how ludicrous your question is. It’s practically equivalent to asking if it’s possible for a chimpanzee to become a chess master.

Henry Engler was born in 1946. In his youth, he was part of the guerrilla in Uruguay. He was in prision from 1972 to 1985. Being over forty he finished university then became one of the best scientifics in the world. I'm sure there are lots of similar examples to that.

WitchA
WitchA
Jun 12, 2019
0
#71

Btw, I made up the stuff in my post and it’s not actually true what I said about the brain. 

Beaker620
Beaker620
Closed: Inactive
Jun 12, 2019
0
#72
It depends. For example, you have a relatively impressive rating of 1889, but your average opponent when you win is 1541, which is in the not-so-impressive range. If you keep piling up wins against opponents well below your rating, then you can probably reach the master rating without too much surprise.
MustangMate
MustangMate
Closed: Inactive
Jun 12, 2019
0
#73

After the age of 40, most of us are lucky if we remember to get out of bed, much less how to put on our shoes. Try and explain any game, much less chess to anyone over 40? You'd have better luck winning the Mega Lottery, 

Drawgood
Drawgood
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Jun 12, 2019
0
#74
Impossible
kamalakanta
kamalakanta
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Jun 12, 2019
0
#75
congrandolor wrote:
WitchA wrote:
No, from around the age of 25 onwards, cognitive decline begins to set in. It becomes impossible to form new neural networks and existing ones deteriorate. White matter in the brain turns to black and the myelin that facilitates electric signals to travel across neurons breaks apart. It’s estimated that a 40 year old iq of 100 is equal to a 20 year old iq of 80.

A 40 year old doesn’t have the ability to learn anything new beyond the very basics. If you had a rudimentary understanding of neuroscience, you’d realize how ludicrous your question is. It’s practically equivalent to asking if it’s possible for a chimpanzee to become a chess master.

Henry Engler was born in 1946. In his youth, he was part of the guerrilla in Uruguay. He was in prision from 1972 to 1985. Being over forty he finished university then became one of the best scientifics in the world. I'm sure there are lots of similar examples to that.

I disagree with WitchA so much!

kthprog
kthprog
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Jun 12, 2019
0
#76

Well I'm turning 25 and I just started playing chess a couple months ago. My highest rating was 1150 (blitz) and I can stay there consistently if I pay enough attention and calculate my moves. I started hanging around 650, then 850, and thought I'd always suck. I've learned entirely through experience and I know only a few moves of a few openings. I think if someone at 25 can improve their chess 500 points in a couple months with no direct study, then someone at 40 studying actively could probably reach 1500-1800 in a year or so, and from there grandmaster seems possible although very challenging.

kamalakanta
kamalakanta
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Jun 12, 2019
0
#77
kthprog wrote:

Well I'm turning 25 and I just started playing chess a couple months ago. My highest rating was 1150 (blitz) and I can stay there consistently if I pay enough attention and calculate my moves. I started hanging around 650, then 850, and thought I'd always suck. I've learned entirely through experience and I know only a few moves of a few openings. I think if someone at 25 can improve their chess 500 points in a couple months with no direct study, then someone at 40 studying actively could probably reach 1500-1800 in a year or so, and from there grandmaster seems possible although very challenging.

Through hard work and determination anything can be achieved!

kamalakanta
kamalakanta
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Jun 12, 2019
0
#78

I am 62 years old, and am still playing at a level of around 2165 FIDE, which I have maintained for quite a few years. So there has been no decline.

The only difference is, my desire/ambition in chess is less than before, and the amount of time I have to devote to chess is also less.

RoaringPawn
RoaringPawn
Jun 12, 2019
0
#79
kamalakanta wrote:

I am 62 years old, and am still playing at a level of around 2165 FIDE, which I have maintained for quite a few years. So there has been no decline.

The only difference is, my desire/ambition in chess is less than before, and the amount of time I have to devote to chess is also less.

I am 63 years old (born same year as @kamalakanta), and am still playing at a level of around 1800 USCF (self-taught; never played tournaments back in the old country), which I have maintained for 30 years. So there has been no progresscry.png

Many players advance up to a certain point, like me, and then hit the invisible wall because of a sleazy and ineffective mindset developed early. Once there, they typically stagnate, like me, no matter how much time and effort they investcry.png

RoaringPawn
RoaringPawn
Jun 12, 2019
0
#80

An update on the Twitter poll