3 ms·

Thanks for being patient with me. From this point of view GMs are made by a system that provides high quality coaching and training. You can't do it by yoursel

Thanks for being patient with me. From this point of view GMs are made by a system that provides high quality coaching and training. You can't do it by yourself! and that this system is not providing adequate support to girls and women. I can believe that. I think I was ascribing too much weight to personal agency in the novice -> GM pipeline.

jacquesm 3y ago
It is like any other sport in that sense, a completely isolated genius without access to books and coaching is not going to automatically become a GM, it starts with family support, then club support and finally individual support from other top level players, and sometimes former players, and some form of sponsoring or personal wealth to free up your time. This is instrumental in becoming really good, beyond a mid level ELO rating. I was pretty fanatical about chess until 17 or so, had a friend who was totally immersed in chess and I had a neighbor at my dads place who was a very strong player (master iirc, who I only beat once at the ripe old age of 8 or so but it completely blew his mind :) ). My school friend is still active ( https://ratings.fide.com/profile/1001396 https://ratings.fide.com/profile/1001396, 2223 ELO rating) and in spite of dedicating a lifetime to chess his highest ranking was 2376 (which is extremely good), he never even got to 'grand master' and he's the strongest player that I've played regularly as a kid. But I realized that I would have to choose: technology, music or chess and technology won out because it seemed to have the biggest potential for generating income. Chess always was just a game to me, I never wanted to study opening books (which I considered cheating, what's the point in memorizing a whole raft of openings, I still believe you're supposed to pit your wits against your opponent, not to memorize 100's of standard openings that you did not come up with yourself and that is table stakes), so I tuned out. But for a year or so I felt that vibe and was really in love with the game. Fortunately Arno was much stronger than I was so he did me a great service (and I was his punchbag which helped him train his opening repertoire). I think we did 20:1 or worse in win rate but when I won it felt pretty sweet. Chess is super intense. And if you want to be any good at all you need every little advantage. For the top (anybody ranked Fide master or above) chess is your life as long as you are active.

jacquesm 3y ago

It is like any other sport in that sense, a completely isolated genius without access to books and coaching is not going to automatically become a GM, it starts with family support, then club support and finally individual support from other top level players, and sometimes former players, and some form of sponsoring or personal wealth to free up your time. This is instrumental in becoming really good, beyond a mid level ELO rating. I was pretty fanatical about chess until 17 or so, had a friend who was totally immersed in chess and I had a neighbor at my dads place who was a very strong player (master iirc, who I only beat once at the ripe old age of 8 or so but it completely blew his mind :) ). My school friend is still active ( https://ratings.fide.com/profile/1001396 https://ratings.fide.com/profile/1001396, 2223 ELO rating) and in spite of dedicating a lifetime to chess his highest ranking was 2376 (which is extremely good), he never even got to 'grand master' and he's the strongest player that I've played regularly as a kid. But I realized that I would have to choose: technology, music or chess and technology won out because it seemed to have the biggest potential for generating income. Chess always was just a game to me, I never wanted to study opening books (which I considered cheating, what's the point in memorizing a whole raft of openings, I still believe you're supposed to pit your wits against your opponent, not to memorize 100's of standard openings that you did not come up with yourself and that is table stakes), so I tuned out. But for a year or so I felt that vibe and was really in love with the game. Fortunately Arno was much stronger than I was so he did me a great service (and I was his punchbag which helped him train his opening repertoire). I think we did 20:1 or worse in win rate but when I won it felt pretty sweet. Chess is super intense. And if you want to be any good at all you need every little advantage. For the top (anybody ranked Fide master or above) chess is your life as long as you are active.