My Goal Is To Beat A Chess Grandmaster

[Bartmanhomer]

Hey everybody. I'm thinking of playing against a chess grandmaster and beat it. I've been playing my Chess App game on my phone and set it off to the highest CPU level there is. (Grandmaster Level). And so far I'm having a very hard time beating it. I try to play as intelligent as possible and I'm not giving up. So I just need to know how can I beat a chess grandmaster? What are the plans and stragedies?

[Knaight]

Hey everybody. I'm thinking of playing against a chess grandmaster and beat it. I've been playing my Chess App game on my phone and set it off to the highest CPU level there is. (Grandmaster Level). And so far I'm having a very hard time beating it. I try to play as intelligent as possible and I'm not giving up. So I just need to know how can I beat a chess grandmaster? What are the plans and stragedies?

The plans and strategies are to play thousands of hours of competitive chess against similarly competitive players, go to chess tournaments routinely, memorize books worth of opening moves, etc. The existing grand masters are the people who did that, and who then turned out to have enough talent to be able to beat the other people who also did that. Inasmuch as there's plans beyond that it would be something like putting that level of time in and then sandbagging it by showing up to one of those 1 vs 100 types of games where you're one more face in the crowd, but playing vastly better than the people who are generally supposed to be there - and even then this assumes the thousands of hours bit.

[Bartmanhomer]

The plans and strategies are to play thousands of hours of competitive chess against similarly competitive players, go to chess tournaments routinely, memorize books worth of opening moves, etc. The existing grand masters are the people who did that, and who then turned out to have enough talent to be able to beat the other people who also did that. Inasmuch as there's plans beyond that it would be something like putting that level of time in and then sandbagging it by showing up to one of those 1 vs 100 types of games where you're one more face in the crowd, but playing vastly better than the people who are generally supposed to be there - and even then this assumes the thousands of hours bit.
Yes and I've been getting better at chess lately. I even made a chess thread at Gaming (other) but it's haven't been active at all.

[Strigon]

It's a long road.
See, beating a chess grandmaster more or less requires being a grandmaster. Because if less-skilled people could reliably beat them... well, you get the point. That isn't to say you can't get lucky, but chess is one of few games with absolutely no luck involved. Unless they're distracted, or otherwise not at peak capacity, the only way you'll win is by being at least close to grandmaster status yourself.

That takes years and years of dedication. Chess is to a grandmaster what running is to an Olympic track runner; it's quite possibly their livelihood, one way or another. You're already years behind them, so you've got a lot of catching up to do. This isn't something you can do on a whim; if you're going to do it, you'll have to be serious.

Start reading. Play everyone you can. Get a tutor. Keep playing more. When you lose, figure out where you lose - no, you didn't lose when you lost your knight, you lost when he was in a position that led to him taking your knight. Go back a few more moves, figure out what sequence of events led to that position. When you win, do the same thing. Keep practicing, keep improving, don't ever stop.

[Bartmanhomer]

It's a long road.
See, beating a chess grandmaster more or less requires being a grandmaster. Because if less-skilled people could reliably beat them... well, you get the point. That isn't to say you can't get lucky, but chess is one of few games with absolutely no luck involved. Unless they're distracted, or otherwise not at peak capacity, the only way you'll win is by being at least close to grandmaster status yourself.

That takes years and years of dedication. Chess is to a grandmaster what running is to an Olympic track runner; it's quite possibly their livelihood, one way or another. You're already years behind them, so you've got a lot of catching up to do. This isn't something you can do on a whim; if you're going to do it, you'll have to be serious.

Start reading. Play everyone you can. Get a tutor. Keep playing more. When you lose, figure out where you lose - no, you didn't lose when you lost your knight, you lost when he was in a position that led to him taking your knight. Go back a few more moves, figure out what sequence of events led to that position. When you win, do the same thing. Keep practicing, keep improving, don't ever stop. Thanks I will. :smile:

[golentan]

Or, if you're not willing to put in the amount of effort specified, you can always cheat and lie to yourself. Get a computer program to do it for you, then claim it's just a memory aide, or something.

But yeah, less ironically... Your options are practice and study so hard you become exceptional, or fail.

[Bartmanhomer]

Or, if you're not willing to put in the amount of effort specified, you can always cheat and lie to yourself. Get a computer program to do it for you, then claim it's just a memory aide, or something.

But yeah, less ironically... Your options are practice and study so hard you become exceptional, or fail. Sorry but I'm not going to cheat. I just want to play fair and square. :annoyed:

[Lethologica]

As Knaight noted, simul-games under favorable conditions are the shortcut. You still have to study a lot to reach that point, though.

[Bartmanhomer]

As Knaight noted, simul-games under favorable conditions are the shortcut. You still have to study a lot to reach that point, though.

Ok thanks. Oh hey Lethologica. Long time no see. I still remember our chess match in this forum. :smile:

[Lethologica]

Useful perspective. (https://www.quora.com/How-can-I-improve-my-chess-skill-1/answer/Zachary-Brown-25)

[warty goblin]

I played a couple games of chess against a rated master once. It was rather surreal. We were clearly playing entirely different games that just happened to take place on the same board at the same time.

[AvatarVecna]

I wish you the best of luck, it's a long road requiring immense time and effort. :smallsmile:

[Vinyadan]

It's pretty simple, although not easy. First you need to learn Ukrainian. Then you need to go and live there in the Ukraine. If you go and live in Chernigov or Kharkhov, you can also learn Russian. Get a job and, each evening, hit the chess club nearest to you. Meet nice girls and boys. If you like the company and the game, you will have enough incentive to become really good and possibly beating a grandmaster.

I have met a girl who had beaten a granmaster recently. Unfortunately, the grandmaster was her granddad and he had suffered a brain stroke recently, he was still recovering when she beat him. She told me that she was hoping to lose the next game against him.

[lio45]

See, beating a chess grandmaster more or less requires being a grandmaster.

Yep - when you're a chess player of the "routinely beats grandmasters" level, by definition you're also a grandmaster yourself.

[/captain obvious]

[noparlpf]

The plans and strategies are to play thousands of hours of competitive chess against similarly competitive players, go to chess tournaments routinely, memorize books worth of opening moves, etc. The existing grand masters are the people who did that, and who then turned out to have enough talent to be able to beat the other people who also did that. Inasmuch as there's plans beyond that it would be something like putting that level of time in and then sandbagging it by showing up to one of those 1 vs 100 types of games where you're one more face in the crowd, but playing vastly better than the people who are generally supposed to be there - and even then this assumes the thousands of hours bit.

Back in high school the teacher who ran the chess club was acquaintances with a master-level player (I forget exactly, I think he was like a "master candidate" or something?) and got him to come in to play with us a couple of times. I think the most we did at once was 1v10 because we didn't have that many boards, but I guess he was having a bad day because I managed a queen capture and then that threw him off so much I managed to back-rank mate him a couple turns later. Another time he came it was a quieter day and we did something like 1v6 (although it ended up 1v1 because he beat everybody else first) and I just barely managed to play to a stalemate. I have to assume he was playing down a bit though, because there was another kid in a nearby district we played with occasionally who was also absurdly good (again I forget exactly, this was almost ten years ago (whoa, that made me feel kinda old) but I think he was rated 1800+ at the time) and I don't think I ever managed to even stalemate him in a match, so I know I'm not that good. I've never had a USCF rating but I played correspondence on chess.com for a while in high school and live on ICC in undergrad and I think I was up to around 1600 on ICC.

[Lethologica]

Back in high school the teacher who ran the chess club was acquaintances with a master-level player (I forget exactly, I think he was like a "master candidate" or something?) and got him to come in to play with us a couple of times. I think the most we did at once was 1v10 because we didn't have that many boards, but I guess he was having a bad day because I managed a queen capture and then that threw him off so much I managed to back-rank mate him a couple turns later. Another time he came it was a quieter day and we did something like 1v6 (although it ended up 1v1 because he beat everybody else first) and I just barely managed to play to a stalemate. I have to assume he was playing down a bit though, because there was another kid in a nearby district we played with occasionally who was also absurdly good (again I forget exactly, this was almost ten years ago (whoa, that made me feel kinda old) but I think he was rated 1800+ at the time) and I don't think I ever managed to even stalemate him in a match, so I know I'm not that good. I've never had a USCF rating but I played correspondence on chess.com for a while in high school and live on ICC in undergrad and I think I was up to around 1600 on ICC.
To answer the question: Candidate Master is someone who reached 2000-2200 rating (USCF) and did some things that a 2000-2200 player would do (like performing to a certain standard in some tournaments). They are very, very good players. OTOH, the distance between them and a GM (2500+ FIDE rating) is still massive.

For my part, I once played in a 1v25 simul against a GM who was rated 2473 at the time. No formal time control, but he would move as soon as he got to a board and you had to move before he came back around the circle. To my elation and bafflement, he accepted a draw on move 19 in an active position where I was slightly but distinctly worse--down the exchange and pawn structure, but with better piece activity and attacking chances. I still have the record (https://en.lichess.org/j0spTFUY) (white=GM). It was the only board he didn't win outright, despite there being far better players in the 25, and I still have no idea why.

Still a long road from there to taking a win off a GM, though.

[Bartmanhomer]

I've faced a grandmaster before and he completely destroyed me. But I'm not going to give up until I beat a grandmaster. That's my dream. :smile:

[tomandtish]

Yep - when you're a chess player of the "routinely beats grandmasters" level, by definition you're also a grandmaster yourself.

[/captain obvious]

It should be noted that in the World Championship this year, of the 16 matches they ended up playing, 12 were draws. They finished the 12 regular matches with 10 draws and 1 win/1 loss each, and had two draws in the four tie-breaker matches they played.

It's hard to beat a Grand Master (esp. one of the top ranked ones).

[Bartmanhomer]

It should be noted that in the World Championship this year, of the 16 matches they ended up playing, 12 were draws. They finished the 12 regular matches with 10 draws and 1 win/1 loss each, and had two draws in the four tie-breaker matches they played.

It's hard to beat a Grand Master (esp. one of the top ranked ones).

Yes I know. I just said that in my previous post.

[Bartmanhomer]

I wish you the best of luck, it's a long road requiring immense time and effort. :smallsmile:

Thank you.