Starting age for becoming a chess master?

I started teaching my nephew chess at age 5, and see him becoming a master one day, simply because of the way his young mind works. 

I began private guitar lessons at age 7, won performance scholarships, and achieved “master” strength in college. I can’t even imagine achieving that level of mastery starting at my current age of 58. 

Something about the brain of a child. I taught instrumental music to elementary students for 27 years, and their brains are like sponges, soaking it all up, making all kinds of connections. 

I think becoming a chess master requires two things: starting young and private lessons. 

Some say it boils down to motivation, and as we age, our motivation to be an expert in any one thing declines. Even if that is true, I still think a young mind is still a crucial component for success. 

Agree? Disagree? Is any age too late to start, with the goal of becoming a chess master, I.e., 2200 USCF? 

My parents never forced me to learn guitar. I’m certainly not forcing my nephew to learn chess. It’s a game he has taken an interest in, and definitely shows talent. 

Desire, motivation - the same thing. But will desire be enough if someone starts at 20, 30, 40? I don’t think so. I do believe there is a cut off somewhere, and I think it gets much harder if someone starts in high school, for example. I wonder what percentage of the current chess masters up to GM’s started in elementary school, or younger? Maybe 95 percent? 

Chess is a series of problems to solve, and children go about solving problems with great imagination and creativity. The adult mind approaches problems differently, sometimes in ways that hinders progress. Perhaps some of the greatest attacking players started before age 5. It’s fun to watch their minds at work. My wife teaches chess to 4th graders, and the ideas they come up with are not always best, but still full of creativity and imagination.  I’ve taught my own elementary band kids before I retired, and it’s just different from when I teach someone like my younger brother, who is 43. His 8 year old son, who I started at age 5, can beat my brother. 

2200 is not that difficult that age alone will not allow you get to that strength. 2400-2500 is more that number.

@catdogorb - Interesting. Starting tournament play at 21, intermittent serious study, a potential of 2200 with regular serious study. I can see that, I suppose, looking back at the drive and ambition I had at 21, still single. Hitting 30 was a different number, wife, kids, job, all kinds of things to worry about. I couldn’t see myself training 4 hours a day at 30. Maybe 30 minutes a day, and that would maybe only boost my rating a 100 points per year, stopping at 1400-1600. Club players between 1800-2000 have an extra gear. I’ve played them, get beat by them,  and they all started much younger than me. 

Now that I’m retired, I am spending an hour a day, as one of my fun retired hobbies. I do see the learning curve as exponential. Not much to learn, say kids going from 600-800. But each rating class, I.e, Class C, B, A, Expert, it’s like each class you move up, you need to learn more than the previous class. I remember playing an Expert once - 2000 USCF. He was told that only 5% of all USCF players hit Expert. 

@ catdogorb - Chess is 99% tactics, I’ve heard, which I find very depressing as an adult. As an adult, I love reading annotated master games, the strategic subtlety they employ, identifying a weakness, creating a second weakness, turning an opponents bishop into a tall pawn, all that strategic stuff...and yet...in the end, I win or lose due to a tactic, at least at my playing strength. I hardly ever play a game where I or my opponent just can’t “hold” the position together anymore. 

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@catdogorb - Thank you. I am enjoying it. Being 58, I’m definitely playing chess for pure enjoyment. I’m not going to kill myself on tactics puzzles and endgame studies, but will still do a bit of both as it relates to or helps strategic play. At the most fundamental level, for example, being alert to any pawn moves in front of a castled king, what squares have become weak and can be targeted, exploited. Example: If I see Black’s king is fianchettoed, my simple strategic plan may be to trade dark square bishops, creating dark square weaknesses, push my f-pawn to f6, my queen to h6, Qg7 mate. 

Yes, I agree. Children's brains are still flexible and open to new ideas while adults first have to unlearn what they know. Compare for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroplasticity

@ rychessmaster1 - Glad to hear that you really enjoy chess, and having a 1999 blitz rating, I’m guessing on this site, wow! You are much better than me. Having taught band and orchestra for 31 years, and taught numerous private music lessons, and having received private music lessons, there just is no substitute for a highly qualified teacher, for just about anything you want to be an expert at. Ok, I’m biased, having been a teacher.

I would strongly recommend lessons from a titled player if you really want to become a titled player, especially at your current playing strength. They have been where you are and know exactly what it takes to get to where you want to go. They will see exactly what you need to work on and give you a clear path.  I’m not saying it’s impossible to get there without a teacher, but it would be far more efficient, faster, and a better use of your time. 

Thank you.  If anything, from my many years observing children learn, I believe they have the best chance of becoming chess masters one day. Now, I’m still going to root for the 14 year old who posted. 

I agree with what pfren said. Staying interested in the game in addition to working hard is a key. As children often like to try out other things when they are young it is not a given that they stay at chess. And the right training program combined with quality tournaments is also a necessity. So you cannot expect what the future brings.

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@IM pfren and FM workhard91 - Two FIDE chess masters! At what age did you start playing chess to become a master? Not, what age do you see the largest number of children quit.

Sure, scholastic coaches start with as many girls and boys as possible, seeing a number of them quit when they become teenagers, with the girls dropping out far more than the boys, at least in the US. I don’t know about other countries. 

My guess would be that the vast majority of chess masters come from the U-10 category, followed by a much smaller percentage from over 10, and almost no one over 18. 

No matter the desire, the motivation, I think that age is the most crucial component for becoming a master player. It’s in the way a child’s brain works, grows and develops. I mean, if the goal of an entire country was to increase the number of titled players, what age would chess instruction begin? I don’t know how much it is still done, but at one time Russia had schools for things like gymnastics and chess, where instruction started very young. 

Thinking of the father-son thing. I have five children, all grown up now. My talent as a child was music, reaching a high level in college, making a career of it. Not all of my children have this talent, but they all have talents in one thing or another. Three of the five have plenty of music talent, but never chose it as a career. 

So maybe the three key ingredients for becoming a chess master are youth, talent and interest. I’m still thinking that of the three, I agree that youth is necessary.

There was a time in my 40’s when I worked hard at chess, but didn’t make the kind of gains as I saw with music. Music came easy, really easy. Besides age working against me, I just found chess harder to learn than music. Don’t seem to have the same level of talent, but I’ll still keep learning, because I enjoy the game. 

The pair of you should shoot for the moon: Play guitar and blindfold chess together.

Hey Omar! Congratulations on the title. So now we know of one person who didn’t start tournament play until around high school and made NM. Awesome! 

Excellent point about the development of bad habits. I increased my rating by 100 points by just watching this one IM on YouTube play players of different ratings, explaining why their moves were mistakes. The point he made that really changed how I play chess is such a simple idea, making sure all of your pieces are defended, looking out for undefended pieces. I didn’t realize how big of a problem that was for me until I saw other players in my rating range make those same basic blunders. The IM is John Bartholomew, and his YouTube series is called “climbing the rating ladder”. He plays against people on this site, starting with the under 1000. He recently teamed up with chess.com. 

I don't know, I'm what would be considered a strong youth player (Former Texas 5th Grade Champion, Have qualified for to represent the US at the World Cadets), and I still haven't been able to hit 2200.