IM Shankland quitting chess

Sam Shankland recently appeared on the US Chess Scoop (4th video down):

http://main.uschess.org/content/view/10513/596/

This really troubled me. I like Sam quite a bit, knowing him through his work on Chess.com. This attitude startled me coming from him. While I'd seen him being upset with losses and bad breaks, he's never taken something this badly as far as I'm aware. (A somewhat related side note - IM Bryan Smith, despite performing more than well enough, failed to make a GM norm at the event because he was paired against only 2 Grandmasters in the Swiss system event - an example of FIDE's ridiculous technicalities as Sam mentions). While I agree that some of FIDE's rules are ridiculous, and I agree that this (the US) is NOT the best country for chessplaying, It would sadden me to see Sam give up tournament play, especially if he actually means what he is saying/implying and really just never plays again, or worse, if he never does anything chess-related at all.

Do you really think he's serious about totally giving up chess? (It would be especially nice if someone who actually *knows* IM Shankland would chime in ;))

like me?

he won't "give up chess."

Who are some of the top IM players that Sam references at the end of the video?

i don't think it's ridiculous that you need to play GMs to get the GM title. i think a requirement of 3 gms out of 9 games is in fact very modest; probably it should be more. the problem is that this tournament was really badly organized: they advertised it as a norm tournament, but allowed a lot of low-rated players to enter. This results in a field where it is effectively impossible for anyone to make a norm. The organizers could see this quite easily, so why they arranged the tournament like this is a total mystery.

ouch, really pissed-off

kinda trying to kill the camera man gazing him

In a word, yes. It's good to know he isn't giving up chess entirely, at least. I hope he'll play tournaments fairly regularly still, but I definitely understand that there simply aren't all that many careers in chess open, especially in this country, ESPECIALLY for someone who's primarily a player rather than a coach, writer, etc.

Upon re-listening to the video, I hear him say one to two tournaments a year after the US Junior Closed, which is certainly more promising than my initial impression of one or two ever.

Some people have lower threshholds for pain than others.

Burn six hours losing a close game to a master, and then turn around and burn another six hours losing another close game to another master and you might start to get the idea.  It's hard to keep your attitude in the right place when things aren't going so well.

I've done nearly that before, Jpatrick. I've also done it against much worse players than masters. Yes, it's tough, but I'm sure that this isn't IM Shankland's problem here - there's no way he would have made it this far.

That was quite the death stare.  He should be directing that at his oppoents

Shankland seems much happier now that it is almost over. See the picture about one third of the way down.  http://www.globe-democrat.com/news/2010/jul/15/globe-trotter/

I've given that type of stare to many people in my life. They usually turn and speed walk the other way

The rant about "silly players" is simply impolite. Also, "FIDE's technicalities" are indeed often debatable, but the rules are the same for everyone. And some people still manage to become GMs, so why complain?

Giving up chess is easy. I've done it three or four times!

i guess you need some luck with the rating of the other paricipants in  the tournaments to achieve gmnorms that are aprooved. must be frustrating

Its extremely difficult to get GM norms in swiss events. In europe they have closed events , just for the purpose of making GM or IM norms. Why arent there more of these in the US ?

What's his complaint? In his game against IM Bryan he blundered away a won game -  so he would rather have blundered against  a Grandmaster?

the fact that he blundered that game doesnt make the rest of what he said go away:)

IM Bryan didn't get a norm in that event, even despite it was announced as a GM-event and he won the tournament