USCF candidate master?

Surely issuing a title for a 1400 rating devalues the whole concept of titles, and kids who receive honorary titles for such modest achievement might well lose motivation to advance further.

Does  offering a yellow belt in Judo "devalue" a black belt: Or does the FM tile "devalue" GM?    In both cases, I dont think the awarding of lower grades devalues the awarding of higher ones.

As for demotivation, I'm not exactly sure how that would work.

I think Chess organization have (FIDE inparticular) very much pandered to the chess elite and haven't focused nearly as much time on the lower end of the scale. Which strikes me as quite foolish, given that the vast majority of players will never make it beyond expert let alone GM!. 

I say, let them offer titles to the 1400's, convince employers that there is commerical value in employing beholders, and the wait and see if such a simple tactic as this promotes the game of chess.

Martial arts (Jiu-Jitsu comes to mind more than Judo, but the latter is not exempt) is a good place to see the effect of money. Judo originally had 3 belt colours. Aikido had 2, now it has more than I care to count, as does Jiu-Jitsu (which has a stripe system now, essentially dividing all the sub-dan levels into 3 sub-levels). The blame can be laid on our collective need for instant gratification. We lose interest if we aren't being promoted (somehow), and the 'system' has to respond or it loses your membership and activity fees.

In chess, I watched one of the best chess clubs in Canada turn into a cheerless place because almost every player became convinced that rated play was the be-all and end-all. Even on their weekly club nights ... I came just wanting to play some casual games and the club president (a past president of the CFC) told me that no one would be willing to play an unrated game. I asked him what they did for fun, and didn't get an answer.

I should add to my post above:  In order to play a rated game in Canada at the time, you had to pay a fee to the CFC (either to become a full member or to get a limited membership called a "tournament membership"). This was an obvious obstacle to casual play, discouraged young players, and in the end I strongly suspect it lost the CFC money due to many potential members being turned off. The CFC membership was dropping at the time. I had conversations with exec members about this, but it fell on deaf ears.

Well, I guess that issuing high school certificates does not devalue academic degrees, but if we were to start calling them academic degrees then it might.

What happened to "class" players ? When I was a kid being a "class" player was thought to be a bit of a distinction, nowadays it seems it is only used as an insult.

As a furtherance of the prevoius point:

I study both Judo (4-5 years) and BJJ (0.5 years).   In BJJ, it takes on average 2 years to move from white to blue belt,  and about 8 to get from white to brown.  In Judo you could you can go from White to brown in 3 years study*

...So what does my CV say:

"Judo player, 4th Kyu BJA..."

"...I also study BJJ"

What one of these two statements is more likey to get me the job?

Similliarly:

a) "avid chess player"

b) "avid chess player, ECF 'county master'. "

* source, if interested/needed: http://www.britishjudo.org.uk/technical/documents/KyuGradingSyllabus.pdf 

Bobby Fischer went from 1625 (his rating from his 2nd tournament) to 2157 in his 3rd tournament to 2349 six months later.

 I think it is definitely possible, but as others have said it won't be very easy at all.  I am also in a situation where I want to make a push for the expert rating as soon as I can, though I am not positive what my actual playing strength is. 

I didn't play my first game of chess until I was 21, then played a good friend from highschool who destroyed me (he was president of the Bowdoin College Chess Club at the time).  I was pretty motivated to improve so for the next 8-10 months I bought a book by Silman and then started playing 3min chess online - obviously the best way to learn chess. 

After about 10months I played in my first live tournament and was rated about 1400.  2months later i moved to Las Vegas and joined the local chess club.  This was in 2005, and at the time it was one of the best run chess clubs anywhere.  there were two experts that would help me out for 10-15min after the club ended going over my games and I improved very quickly.  After 9months at the club I was rated 1780 but I am sure my playing strength was higher, It just didn't have time to catch up. 

After a year however, the club closed and I stopped playing chess.  I still played 3min chess online, but didn't play live, or over a 3min time control, for about 5yrs.  I am 28 now and just 3weeks ago I've started going back to the club.  My goal, like yours, is to reach expert as soon as possible.  I've played 7games so far, and am +7, but its been difficult to gauge my strength because i've played 4 12-1400's, a 1600, and an older guy who is currently at his floor of 1800 who hasn't played chess in over a decade.  My next few games appear to be against expert caliber players, so hopefully I will be able to figure how big of a gap I need to bridge to reach 2000+.

It's completely possible. Even up to the expert level most games are decided by tactical mistakes. If you can become a proficient tactician then expert and even master is doable. It would also help to have a strong player as a coach or mentor, but I think it's possible without.

Too many people spend all their chess time studying openings when they should be working on improving their tactics and basic endgames. That's where the real improvemnt will come from.

While I agree anything is possible, it certainly is not probable. Most players underestimate how big a gap in playing strength 1400 to 2000 is. The one thing you have going for you is that with the current system a really good tournament gives you significant bonus points that can help to ramp up your rating.

With today's technology it is possible.I was able to reach expert level 20 years ago.Yasser Sierwan Books took me all the way to that.You have to learn the right way so you don't have to break bad habits.I suggest getting the Chessmaster game and use  all of its Academy features.This will take you on your way to Expert.

Most can not make this goal in a years time.

If your IQ is 145 or better then you should be able to grasp and acquire this CM title withen a year..

I see this post is old...Did he make it?

There is now a Candidate Master title in the USCF: http://www.glicko.net/ratings/titles.pdf 

Wow! Congrats! 

 No, it require too much work and seven years later you are not expert level.

Possibly of interest:

Chess Training for Candidate Masters by Alexander Kalinin

https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/9047.pdf

"... It is all too frequent that a wrong evaluation is made of what a talented player can achieve. ... Most players have the potential for a certain level; once they have reached it they can only make further progress with a great effort. ..." - GM Thomas Luther (2016)

I made it from around 1300 to around 1700 (not real rating, but the play level) in around 3 months, in the summer maaaaany years ago when I didn't have much to do and just spent entire days studying books and playing through master games. 1500-to-2000 in a year is definitely possible, but you need to be really dedicated and study a LOT. If you have other real life responsibilities, such as school, university or job, then I wouldn't count on it.

No 1800 has a master level understanding, play enough of them to know they are no master. 

You no Harvard.  I'm sorry.