How do you become a chess grandmaster?

Play chess , play more chess . Beat some folks , play more chess . You could always just lie . Since clearly you just wanna reap the benefits of being chess master , they always get laid

Practice, practice, practice. Oh, no, sorry, that’s how you get to Carnegie Hall.

For a tournament to award title norms, it has to have a number of players who are already titled. So your local chess club event won’t do it.

But say you went to one of the big weekend events that offered enough cash to attract titled players. Then you have to play (I think) at least half your games against titled players, and if you achieve a 50 percent score against the grandmasters, that will count as one grandmaster norm.

Better than the American weekend tournaments are the tournaments in Europe that they call “norm tournaments” because they’re conducted mostly in order for players to achieve title norms. In Hungary, they held these things every first Saturday, and called them “The First Saturday” tournaments. How clever.

I forget how many norms are required to earn the title, and they have changed the rules about whether norms expire and the player’s minimum FIDE rating to earn the title.

Those are the technical details. As far as over the board goes, the first step in achieving a title norm at chess is: Get younger, so good luck with that.

Hack the code in that computer game you’re playing to make “novice” say “Grandmaster,” which, by the way, sounds like grandfather.

I had a chess grandmaster teach me. That’s the only training I have, I didn’t have to seek it out though…it was a family member.

Marry a grandmistress?

@frdelrosario What is “Norm”? Is that short for something? Is this an ignorant question or what?

@habaneroman I don’t know how old you are, but I heard that once grandmasters reach the age of 35 their game noticeably decreases in strength : (

1) Study general strategy and tactics until you reach FIDE rating 1800.
2) Study endgame and openings in-depth until you reach 2000.
3) Play in tournaments to get experience with time management and psychological aspects of play. This will also give you your official rating.
4) If you have talent, you’ll reach 2500 in a few years, which is grandmaster level.

Expect to give up much of your life to reach this goal.