Archive for July, 2009

(first in a series of adult learning posts)

“These things take time.” the grand master explained to his young pupil. Ten years and nearly one thousand rating points later, the student now finally realized the truth in the words of his teacher. One must realize that there is no quick fix to becoming an expert in any field, you need to pay your dues and in time you will reach one of many “a-ha” moments as your skills improve.

Cognitive psychologists Chase & Simon in 1973 studied chess experts and found that they had often spent as many as 50,000 hours practicing chess. That means that a 35 year old master who has spent 50,000 hours playing chess must have spent 4-5 hours everyday for thirty years on the chessboard starting at the age of 5.

Good heuristics on the time it takes to improve and reach certain milestones in your chess development could go like this (Note that results may vary based on the amount of time you spend, and the intensity of your training sessions):

• The average adult will need to invest approximately 5 years of practice to become a decent player (ELO 1600)
• The average adult will need to invest approximately 10 years to become an expert (ELO 1900-2000).
• Because time is against them, the average adult learner will have an extraordinarily difficulty time in surpassing the 2000 ELO rating.
• Measureable progress comes in 6-12 month periods.

More >