How to become a grand master?

I would like to think all i need to do is practice...lots and lots of practice but...

some kids like 12 years old or younger are masters at chess already...

and some people i seen with 10,000 games plus still have non-grandmaster ratings...

How does a person become a master at chess?

are people just born with it?

or

can people learn to be one?

both, some people born like that, some people work hard and get there.

I am probably on the 10K games with not master.

Anyway the problem is not about how many games you play, but how many good games you play. Otherways you are just reinforcing the same mistakes.

In my case, I have not interest on becoming a profecional chess player, so the title is not my target.

You need a lot of dedication in order to become master, no mater if nature give you exeptional brain for chess. We are talking of at least 8 hour at day of study, practice and so on. Then deal with the stress a profecional chess player have to deal with. for example counting on a tournament prize to pay the bills give you a whole new level of involvement on the game. Your oponent says "checkmate" and the first think on your mind is "being homeless sounds like a wonderful adventure!"

Many people born with exeptional talent, then they discover something else, like drugs, and you never see them again. This people come with a ratter sad recollection of their live. Stories like: When I was 12 I was on the top 10 players of my country, but to help me deal with stress I fall into alcohol and now I can barely play anything.

Also consider that if you are a title master people expect great archivements from your, so if for normal people beeing the second best player on the town sounds like a great deal, for a GM such "archivement" is the lowets of their whole carrer.

I know some people will say something like: "you don't have to win tournaments to pay the bills, you can sell books and give classes teaching people."

Stuff is not that simple. Nobody will buy your book if you don't win tournaments. And now sit a GM with the kids of some rich guy to teach them that a chess board have 8x8 squares...

Anyway, yes, you can learn to become a GM. It will take a lot of time, dedication, and hard work. But eventually you will get there, if there is where you want to be.

Win games. A better question would be "How do I win games" and if I could answer that I wouldn't be stuck at this noob rating would I?

And you have to be able to beat GMs, who also wish to maintain their status. Good luck with that

It is a very competitive envirment. However there is not a fixed number of GMs, so there can be as many masters as there can be. It is not like someone says "only the top 1k will be GMs and there will not be more than that on the world". So becoming a GM doens't mean you are beating down someone their title.

The point still irrelevant, as if someone who just learned the ABC is asking how to become a best seller writer, and your answer is: You have to beat other best seller writers and they will not let you...

Prove it. Become a Grandmaster.

The GM title is held for life.

Improve at chess

I think astronomer99 meant ''status'' as in rating.

You need a lot of talent and a lot of practice, preferably at a a young age

you need to be a good chess player- captain obvious

I play a tone of chess on the site, but that's more for fun than to really improve. When I do improve it's because I spend time studying (and I have to do a LOT more of that--endgame, middle game planning, practicing tactics, openings). Just work on the areas as much as possible and you'll get stronger. I'll probably never become a GM, but it would be cool to get a low master title some day--we'll see!

Check out the following thread:

 

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/how-to-become-a-gm-by-zod?page=1

 

But before you do that, be kind enough to read my thoughts on it first - about not "killing the messenger." You can find it here:

 

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/dont-kill-the-messenger

Well there is the problem...

If someone ask how to become a grand master on karate, I can give pretty much the same answer. But for my self... I am not willing to put the time, dedication and hard work required to archive those things.

Asking me to dedicate the next 30 years of my life to prove my point, becoming a GM on chess or on karate or on anything else, is not reasonable. There is plenty of GMs out there explaining how they get there.

Talking about karate, by the way, there is actually 3 GMs that got there by the means of dedication to karate, I am talking of traditional Okinawa karate, but there is thousans of "honorary GMs", they are basically people who have done great things to preserve and to expand karate. Chess does have this "honorary GM" stuff too. For example the oldest active player got the GM just because he is so old and play chess, so another way to get the GM is to get old and still playing, and if there is nobody older than you playing chess then you can clain the GM... Now, please don't ask me to do this myself to prove it.

It just requires you to be fully focused on playing with interest of winning and rejoicing in its complex beauty rather on quick rating progress. Chess needs endless patience and discipline. You should rather play to learn than winning. Bring a grand master for life is a great beautiful dream but has a challenge you need to face. You could need to give up your studies and shift your career. But I disagree that Bobby Fischer was born with chess talents but we are not so we cant play, it differed so much because the ways he and we choose are different. His understanding, feeling and perception is so much better. But we should not strive now to find his way rather we should create our own way of play and improvement. We love chess but being Grandmaster requires to give up timepassing hobby to make passion. And such improvement is achieved by those who believe in quality than quantity

It's not that people are born with it, but they develop it at a very young age, or at least very early in their chess careers. There is probably no chance you will become a grandmaster, for example, if you have been playing chess for fifteen years without ever breaking 2000. It just won't happen because you didn't build the muscles early enough in your career.

Go for it.

Perhaps of interest:

https://www.chess.com/article/view/can-anyone-be-an-im-or-gm

Also:

What It Takes to Become a Grandmaster by GM Andrew Soltis

rko

No-one becomes aGM without working very hard at chess. Some have to do more work than others.  Whether that is because they are genetically less gifted, or because they are not so well taught, or because most of us acquire bad habits that hinder our progress and have to be overcome is an open question.  Some people think they know all the answers.  They are mistaken.

 

You are rated 1625. You should be asking "How do I get to 1700+ ?"