how hard is it to really get a title, even if it is CM, asking people with titles?

For me getting to that level came naturally with the years since I always kept playing (OTB) and sometimes learning from defeats ;-)

When my rating got close, say, around 2180 it became a tad stressful because a win vs a 2000 would gain me like 7 points and a loss cost like 25 points :P

In the end I just stopped paying too much attention to rating and just really really focused on the game in front of me. Then I finally made it, being 40+ years of age :-)

(After that I tried very briefly to go for FM but I quickly realized I was nowhere near that level and should be very happy to even have made CM)

To get some idea how hard it is to get any kind of title, let's consider a quote from that wikipedia page.

"Approximately 50,000 chess players have USCF ratings, of which approximately 2,500 are rated 2,000 or better. Thus, chess experts are in the top 5% of all USCF tournament chess players."

So we are talking about a large group of people who play in chess tournaments, and presumably play and study chess often. Yet only 5% of them are rated above 2,000 or better.

Getting those 5 norms to get to be a USCF CM is not easy because that means winning against other 2000+ players.

It is harder to gain 100 points further up the rating scale. It is not enough to work hard; you have to work smart. You probably will need help. You'll need money to attend tournaments. You'll need to give up time doing other things.

Good luck to all who want to try it.

It takes a long long time. Years and years.

ya it does

@MrPushwood said in #13:
> It takes a long long time. Years and years.
Really?
Well I should go for that goal soon

Well but im only 9 years old so i still have a long time

@Munchoong_kingsleyc said in #16:
> Well but im only 9 years old so i still have a long time

If you put time right now into serious study (as you only have school and not much else to worry about), you can get to around double your rating in 2-3 years and have a title within reach. But if you wait until you are over 17 to put the time, odds are you wont get there, or will have a very hard time, as life happens.

You really are in an optimal position to really improve, its just matter of wanting to do the effort.

@Alientcp said in #17:
> If you put time right now into serious study (as you only have school and not much else to worry about), you can get to around double your rating in 2-3 years and have a title within reach. But if you wait until you are over 17 to put the time, odds are you wont get there, or will have a very hard time, as life happens.
>
> You really are in an optimal position to really improve, its just matter of wanting to do the effort.
Thanks

It was 23 years hard (as far as I am concerned).

probably takes a whole bunch of hard work (maybe half ur life)