Do you think there are unknown players that can beat the GMs?

Well, most very strong players on Internet without OTB experience are engine users. Among those who are not, a fraction will eventually start OTB chess, and presumably emerge with an OTB rating in the 1700-2100 range, and some others will remain strong Internet players, usually with some specialization in very fast time-controls (1 0 or 3 0).

I don't think there is any Internet genius in the world that could compete with GMs in OTB classical chess, and I doubt there are more than a couple that would be master level.

Usually when people realize they are good at chess, they want and try their mettle in OTB competition.

I have beaten GMs on this site and on other sides in blitz. It's a lot of fun!!

Blitz is different. Beating a GM in long chess would be a serious achievement.

you guys are SO certain of that.

that surprises me;  to beat a gm properly means to do so on the long game- a game that last 2-5 hours long and is never played online and rarely casually.

GM's are the amazing experts of this grueling athletic endervor.

it seems almost impossible to me, that someone would arrive at nearly that level without extensive tournament experience.

perhaps a near gm; has no title because he doesn't care and doesn't like to travel.  but an online guy who plays G5's obsessively or a street bum who beats mediocre players by the truck full.

they haven't played experiences that prepare them to win.  IMHO.

as for shadowboxing against a puter.  and its highest setting you will never win- at lower settings you are only learning to win by observing lapses in computer programming- not necesarily by mastering chess. IMHO.

btw, have to reluctantly agreed with hicet

I know chess.com likes to preserve the myth of the strong online chess. its good  marketing or something.

but getting very good at chess means OTB competition.  when you go around and find out who's who.... you arrive to that conclusion.

sorry mod guys I hope that's not a forbidden thing to say.

The answer to this question is no.

I saw a a NYC city park player beat GM Finegold in blitz on a Youtube video once, but that doesn't mean that there are rogue players out there who secretly play at GM level, but have never played in organized chess events before.

There was a chessplayer in the state of Maryland in the U,S,A,,by the name of Michael Thomas, who was a lifelong A player whose rating regularly ventured into the the expert category only to soon retreat back to class A. He was a regular participant in local tournaments. His usual circa 1900 rating tended to put him right in the middle of all of the players in the tournaments that he played in, which meant that if he was paired up in the first round of a swiss system tournament, he would often find himself playing the highest rated player in the event. If he was paired down in the first round of a tournament, he would nearly always win and then be paired with one of the top seeded players in the second round.

In his all too brief life Mike Thomas played many Grandmasters in serious slow tournament games and managed to defeat an astonishing nearly three dozen of them.

He seemed to hardly ever fail to take advantage of Grandmasters' tactical oversights, yet when playing against lesser players he would regularly commit tactical oversights himself and fail to take advantage of his opponents similar errors.

Your story could use some verification. Does not seem plausible at all.

Hmmm....Nice topic.  I am such an individual and yes there are more!  Check out my blog, I am a low rated player with over 100 documented wins versus the worlds best players, without using computers!  Its all on my chess.com blog.  The list includes beepbeepimajeep, chessninja and stockfish 8, the kasparov engine, fischer engine, anand engine and the King, chessmaster engine, as well as all major android engines on their hardest levels.  

So why is my rating not higher?  That is a good question and i have my reasons, but that is beside the point since the games are available as proof.

Look up GM Albin Planinc. I'll give a few of the relevant details:

Born during WW-2 in German-occupied Yugoslavia. Grew up in a working-class family, and became a lathe-operator in a bicycle factory.

Qualified for the 1969 Vidmar Memorial chess tournament held in Lyubljana, Yugoslavia. The field included ten GMs (such names as Gligoric, Unzicker, Tringov, R.Byrne, Matanovic, Georghiu, Barcza, etc) and three IMs. Planinc, then in his 20s, was untitled. The tournament was category 1A, the highest FIDE category recognized at the time.

Planinc was the only player who couldn't even take a day off to prepare for the tournament... he continued working in the factory right up until the day the tournament started.

The course of the tournament was a sensation. Planinc held the lead (or tied for first) the whole way. This untitled player defeated Grandmaster after Grandmaster, losing only once (to GM Gligoric) and finishing in clear first place after a dramatic last-round victory over GM Georghiu in which Planinc sacrificed a whole Rook for the attack.

One almost forgotten highlight of this tournament was ANOTHER almost-unknown player, Puc, who actually managed to stay level with Planinc through most of the tournament; only dropping back after two consecutive losses in the late rounds.

By winning this category 1A tournament, Planinc scored enough points for a FIDE GM "norm"... but unfortunately, FIDE (at that time, at least) didn't allow untitled players to earn GM norms, so it only counted as an IM norm. Planinc earned the GM title a few years later.

It's not likely for two reasons:

1) excellence in any field requires hard work and those who rise to the top do it by competing against the best.  So someone who has never played the best is extremely unlikely to have the ability to beat them.

2) If someone is extremely good at chess, odds are he would have entered chess tournaments. When I was playing in my first OTB tournament and lost my first three games, a girl approached the group of new friends I had made, some of whom she knew, looked at the expression on my face when she asked how everyone was doing, and said, "Let me guess, Mickey. This is your first tournament, you haven't lost a game playing casually against friends for years, so you are stunned that you haven't won a game yet."

She was right on target!  I think people who haven't lost a casual game in years begin to play tournaments and soon realize they have a LONG way to go to be a good tournament player.  Those who never play a tournament become a legend among family and friends who, with no expertise, say, "He'd probably be a grandmaster if he played tournaments!"

In the USA prison system there is a huge Chess community. The inmates have access to Chess literature , some have access to computers and all they have is time on there hands to study and play. It's possible a few of them play at a  average or low GM level. 

You're thinking of Claude Bloodgood? His rating was withdrawn... it turned out that some of the games were fixed.

Just imagine... you can't even trust convicted murderers!

We have been getting away from the actual title of this forum.

Did you ever consider that a very strong player who played at the 2439 level for the last year of his over-the-board chess but then became disabled [so he could no longer play over-the-board] but nevertheless greatly upgraded his chess after he could no longer play otb chess? 

Lyudmil?

The answer to your question is yes it is possible and yes there are individuals who are low rated who have many wins versus GMs.  What's my "trick" to beating GMs?  (drum roll...)  -Challenge a GM!  If you never play them, you won't win!  It is in playing a GM that one can beat a GM.  In other words many players can beat GMs but few people challenge them to find this out!  Conversely if you never play a GM, you will never beat a GM!

In my case, I am low rated, yet I have recorded right here on my chess.com over 100 wins versus the world's top players (GMs included)!

How do I keep such a low rating and why?  Well, that is an entirely different question but has much to do with my job which often gets in the way of my games!

I have beaten a few in my day, lots of other titled players, even had one who would challenge me as a guest on chess.net and when I told him he was too good for me, he divulged that he was a Dutch GM and that I had in fact beaten him before which was why he was challenging me to play.

1. Please publish sample games when you beat a GM on chess.com.

2. This sentence makes no sense:  "In my case, I am low rated, yet I have recorded right here on my chess.com over 100 wins versus the world's top players (GMs included)!"  If you beat some of the world's top players, they would all be GMs, not just some of them like your sentence indicates. 

3. There are around 1600 grandmasters alive today.  How many of them have you beaten?

@tmodel66,

Thanks for the interest.  Please note this is all true, and the games are really actually posted on chess.com on my blog, just as I said.  Although I have only posted around 100 games, I actually have 100s of more wins which are saved in online databases in my profiles but haven't yet been posted online because I am busy writing a book.  I do wish you would have just checked out my blog which shows the games instead of discrediting me so quickly.  This is why I went through the trouble of posting the games so carefully, since of course, no ones seems to believe me.  Multiple neck and neck matches with the #1 rated online player BeepBeepImaJeep (higher than Magnus's Rating), should speak for themselves, however what I meant by the "world's top players" was literal.  Of my crushing victories I have over 100 versus the top 5000 players in the world, including over 10 in the top 100.  Many are GMs, some have been super GMs (top ten).  

Now, since you don't believe me, go check out my blog by clicking my profile name and see for yourself.  When you review and analyze the games, you will see how I beat SF8 multiple times over a year ago along with many GMs, yet I did not use a computer.  Also, the wins were often easy and effortless.

Am I trying to prove I am one of the best players, yet unknown?  Find out for yourself!  Why is my rating so low?  Why am I not well known?  These factors are do to a casual account which I play for fun at work while helping customers.  So, think what you want, but if you don't check out my games, you are the one missing out!

Anyway, I love chess just like you and don't like trolls or liars.  In answer to this post, there really are unknown world class players who don't participate in tournaments for various reasons.