How long does it take to improve chess?

Hello all. I was wondering how long it takes for a person to be rated 2000, so a candidate master.

My rating is in the 950-1050 area, so I am fairly new. I just got the premium membership and for the past month have been doing alot of tactics (around 1-1.5 hours a day of just tactics) plus a few games a day.

So in total, I guess I have been doing 2 hours a day of chess pretty much everyday, and I have seen considerable improvement. My tactics rating has gone up roughly 150 points, from 1150 to 1300 and my chess rating around 100 points.

I was wondering how long it would take if I worked 2 hours a day for everyday for someone such as myself to become a 2000 rated player (3-5 years?) Let us assume I have a modest degree of talent for the game.

Thanks

learn from my ass and youll see improvement everyday

I don't think your goal should be 2000, put the bar a hellovalot lower, maybe you'll never even reach 2000.... like EVER, aim for 1200, then 1300 etc

Thanks for the somewhat...indirect...answers

When I mean my goal is to become a 2000 rated player, I mean its more like a dream, and of course I am not trying to make a big leap, just little baby steps at a time.

I know this guy who isn't particularly intelligent in any academic subject, and hangs out with a poor crowd, and although he is only 17, he has a chess rating of over 2200+ and competes in the international youth chess turnament.I figure if someone like him can be as good as he is, I figure that I least have a potential to become a fairly good player.

I also remember something about a 10,000 hour rule, that in order to master anything, you need to spend around 10,000 working on it. Does that apply for chess as well? I would think so, after all, chess is not simply a reflection of intelligence, its a matter of skill and practice as well, is it not? I'm sure many masters started off with ratings in the low 1000's and worked their way up.

And lastly, I love chess

But anyway, thanks for all the responses guys

Amassing knowledge, playing games OTB and online, analysing all of them, doing tactics, reading books and reading them again, playing in tournaments, every small grain my hamster brings to his collection makes him better fed. By working on chess about 3 hours a week for five years I improved from about 1050 to 1350, which puts the learning rate at 0,38 ELO point per hour at the beginning level for me (hamster typing on its digital calculator at the top of its small pile of grain).

It is also possible not to improve at all when not working, i.e. just playing blitz for fun and repeating the same mistakes again and again. I experienced this for a short time and stopped. Now I play blitz for the opening analysis and training only when I'm too tired to play a regular game.

I recently increased the number of chess working hours and saw a modest but significant result with my ratings (on several internet chess servers) after only one month.

1500 is a very hard challenge. 1600 will take my sanity away. 1700 seems impossible with the talent of a decerebrated animal. I will see 1800 only ocasionally on the record sheet of my opponents in OTB tournaments. 1900 are for young talented lads who insolently come at the chess club talking about something else and crushing you with ease. 2000 is only for champions who are not champions because there are too many of them. 2100 will give you a stiff neck and a headache if you think about it. 2200 is indecent and disrespectful for a hamster to talk about. 2300 is FIDE Master, it is not IM yet, but since I won't even be a CM that makes no difference. 2400 is blissfully good. Oh yes, I will try anyway. It is so desperate and hopeless it suits a hamster perfectly.

You must make it your goal to learn, not simply play. Grinding on tactics is the correct approch at the moment for you, and picking up a book sometime between now and when you are around 1200 would probably be a good idea. (I suggest starting with skimming Capablanca's Chess Fundamentals  and learning about various basic mating ideas.) Finally, analyze every game you can get your hands on--games that you played in blitz, CC games, GMs' games, and even games that you are currently playing. Ask yourself: why was/wasn't piece X captured? What differences resulted from such a capture, or why did the player(s) decide to leave the tension? Is each player trying to create a new threat every turn? What was the purpose behind each and every move? What squares does each piece control/threaten?

Focus on winning in the middlegame--it's excellent practice for recognizing mating patterns. Improving endgames at this point isn't as essential, since a piece won by a tactical threat or a checkmate is much more effective at the ~1000 level.

At this point, play many 10 to 15-minute games to practice applying your tactics to games. I don't recommend 5-minute games since they tend to be too short to incorporate much thinking. In fact, don't be afraid of running out on time--if you practicing thinking about chess strategy in the given time and got to a winning position during the game and lost on time, you successfully worked on improving, and that's what ultimately counts. I remember when I just started chess and played dozens of 15-minute games and did tactics practice for weeks on end, while my school's board 2 only played 5 minute blitz games for fun. By the end of the season, I was able to outplay him most of the time.

Oh, and to answer the original question, I've heard of a guy who studied his butt off for one semester and made it from novice to 2000. Given, many people don't have the time or ability to pull that off, it's been done.

I see Heler,

So 3 hours a week x 52 weeks in a year x 5 years = 795 hours

If it takes 10000 or so hours to master something, you around 8% of the way their. A 300 point improvement in your ranking seems around right for having moved 8% of the way to mastery.

So, if I worked 2 hours a day for 365 days

2 hours a day x 365 days in a year = 730 hours

In one year I should approximately go up to 1350 points as well. So thats around 300 points a year.

Of course, everyones different, I may be less smart/talented than you and I improve less, or maybe I'm more smart/talented and I improve faster. Either way, all I wanted was a rough approximate goal post.

Thank you everyone for your replies. I truely appreciate it. You have all been trully helpful and I am grateful

Rating is just a number, and doesn't necessarily have to increase linearly. I remember jumping from <1000 to about 1200-1300. The change was sort of a jump, and it came once all the tactical patterns from chesstempo.com "clicked" and I was able to spot most tactics automatically, when told that there was a tactic present. To be honest, the moment was really immediate, but rather, was over a short period of time after I gained confidence in tactics.

Sidenote: it helps to always tell yourself that a tactic is always there, no matter how many moves away, since it's great calculation training. Sometimes you might find a gem!

Edit: try to read through some of these: http://www.chess.com/forum/view/game-analysis/we-need-more-amateurs-to-post-their-annotated-games

Just wondering, does 17 years of age still constitute a child??

I don't really think so

I think it is a great idea to have such a high goal of 2000. Do what some of the better players suggest to do. Take some small steps at getting your rating that high, and it will come! :D

i dont get why the hell people discourage these sort of question! like you will never reach 2000 or you cant become a gm or etc. dude *bebopbox* everything is possible even the impossible is possible only that impossible takes a little longer to achieve. you only need the *thirst* for it. it all depends *How MUCH you Want it !!!*

just btw i learned the complete rule when i was 19, and made an account here (not this one) in approx. 3 months my rating rised from 600 to 1000. then in the next 3 months i rised from 1000 to 1300+. not to mention i have beaten few 1400+ too(during my peak time i was in a momentum to cross 1600+ if i continued playing) initially your rating will shoot if you give ample time like 4-6 hour a day. late coming near to 2000 the improvement will slow down and will continue slowing down as you climb the rating ladder