The curious case of 1200: The Expert's rating

Alltay,

I suppose it is all perspective.  

”1200 is really easy to get man”

Balderdash! I’ve tried to excuse myself from these comments and live a life of peace.  However, such provocative comments are impossible to ignore even for a person of my humility.

Your comment is the equivalent of saying, making it to the NBA Is simple, it’s becoming a star in the league that’s difficult.

A person can easily reach 1200 if he dedicates enough time to chess in 6 months. No big deal. 1200 is the end of the "Beginner" catagory and beginning of Novice.

400-800 New in Chess

800-1200 Beginner

1200-1600 Novice

1600-2000 Intermediate

2000+ Advanced (now I cant make more catagory as most people here have a FIDE rating and so their online rating doesnt say much)

That is our point;6 months is a very long time! millions who tried chess did quit way before they reached 1200.

It did take me a good 3-4 months before i got to 1250 and i already learned many openings and endgame tactic and a few tactics for the middle game in book before i started.

A good 10 hours of studying at least.

Not an easy task if someone doesn't have all that info before starting to play and the passion.

Now it's a lot easier with all the you tube videos and tactical puzzles on every chess site but still...

Yes it's a lot easier then 1400,but on this site very few get to 1400...look at the percentile,at 1300 you are already in the top 18%.

When I say 6 months I mean from the time that guy first started playing chess and he must be 600 at that time, reaching 1000 would hardly take 3 months if you dedicate atleast 1-1.5 hour a day to chess with full interest and concentration, the only problem is a lot of people dont have so much time and so it takes them more than 2 years. But if someone TRUELY LOVES CHESS than he can reach 1000 in a year, also what u said, man 6 months is not a long period in CHESS, its like any other sport.

It all depends on how well you self evaluate and try to correct. 

1200 rated is certainly not "expert" level. I would set it at 1700, because that's around the point when people don't make tactical blunders anymore. 

It's funny cause your wrong

Maybe the comment is equivalent. To find out, how many people in the world are rated 1200 or above in chess? And how many people in the world are in the NBA? Maybe it's roughly the same number. Or, maybe it's not. 

I find this surprising, given that I am about 1500. The USCF used to consider 2000 to be expert, and 2200 to be NM if I'm not mistaken.

Well it turns out there are about 450 people in the world who are in the NBA. So the "equivalent" comment would mean there are about 450 people in the world who are rated 1200 or above in chess. Becoming elite in either is probably very difficult though. 

I'm just thankful I'm one of those rare 450 people in the world who is rated 1200 or above in chess. 

Yes I am glad too of finally breaking the 1200 barrier

2000FIDE is expert.., not chesscom 2000 :C stop overestimatiing urselves people!

I fall in intermediate... Chesscom says 1200 is intermediate well its not

Most important post

And yes those ratings which I said in that post are CHESSCOM ratings

1599 a novice?

novice=a person new to or inexperienced in a field

novice = Under 1200.

some use the term advanced beginner or experienced beginner for 1200-1400

To get to 1400 average here at chess.com it usually take a good 800 to 1000 games if you started under 800 for real,and it take close to one year,so it's not trivial.

and most never reach it because at 1400 here you are already in the top 10%;look at the percentile...it's 82% for a 1300 here. 

hpy is 1900 Elo and 2100 at lichess.

I am 2600 FIDE. But here I purposely play bad and stay low on 1500 to have fun.

yep