What You Should Do to Become a Chess Grandmaster

If you dream to become a professional top chess player at a young age, then there are number of things that you should know. Today, I am going to share with you an exact strategy that can help you to achieve your goal of joining an elite league players.

Source: Makowski from Unsplash

To reach a high ranking in the modern chess arena, you should learn from players from whom you get inspiration. For some people, they are chess legends from the past, such as Jose Capablanca, Boris Spassky, or Max Euwe. In contrast, for others they are historically unique in their style players: Paul Morphy, Wilhelm Steinitz, Vera Menchik, etc.

Thus, step number one: find your target players that you love watching and practicing their lines, but I will pick the ones that most of our audience would like to see here and now. In the next step, analyze their pathways to prominence, learn how they got to that level, and identify the advantages that potentially you have, as your capabilities are similar to theirs. So, by doing what I suggest, you will identify your strong sides and work on those aspects unless you don't hit the top. So, let's get started!

Mikhail Tal

Source: Harry Pot from Wikimedia Commons

Mikhail Tal was a Soviet-based chess legend - he was well-known for his unpredictable and risky playing style. Tal was born in Riga, Latvia; his first significant appearance came in the 1956 USSR Chess Championship, taking 6th place. Some sources declare his playing style as highly pragmatic, involving long calculated sacrifices to win the initiative in the game.

Garry Kasparov

Source: Rob Bogaerts from Wikimedia Commons

Garry Kasparov is one of the greatest chess players of all time, having been the first-ever grandmaster who broke the 2800 rating record and won 15 consecutive tournaments from 1991 to 1990. His professional career peak rating was between the years 1985-2000s. He was defeated for the first time by IBM's computer dubbed Deep Blue in 1986.

Kasparov secured the championship title for 15 years; his highest FIDE rating was 2851, achieved in 1999. He was a solid strategist and tactical attacker by style.

Bobby Fischer

Source: Unknown Author from Wikimedia Commons

Bobby Fischer was an American chess grandmaster born in Chicago, Illinois, on March 9, 1943. His game against Boris Spassky for the World Chess Championship in 1972 was the most broadcasted chess game ever since. In fact, Fischer's style of playing differed: with whites, he tried to control the opponent by attacking the challenger's king constantly and if he played with blacks, he would construct an impenetrable wall for the opposition.

Magnus Carlsen

Source: Andreas Kontokanis from Wikimedia Commons

Magnus Carlsen is the world's highest FIDE-rated chess player; he is currently the number one chess grandmaster in almost all categories. He started playing chess at the age of 5 and attended his first chess tournament when he was 8 years old. Surpringly, Carlsen's first groundbreaking game against Kasparov in 2004, which eventually ended up being a draw, was in the spotlight of the whole chess community.

He plays mainly in an aggressive style, using a variety of opening positions to confuse the opponent in the pre-game stage. He is also known for his expertise in endgames calculating all possible options.

TAKE THE QUIZ: To what extent you play like Magnus?

Just take the quiz, and you get little more recomendations to improve

Nodirbek Abdusattorov

Source: Frans Peeters from Wikipedia Commons(saturated)

Nodirbek Abdussatorov is an Uzbek grandmaster and, rising talent; he is one the brightest players in modern chess. Indeed, the young prodigy gained huge fame after his successful performance in the 2021st Rapid World Championship, outperforming Ian Nepomniachtchi in the final round. Notably, he also plays aggressive chess like Carlsen, his strengths are in his sophisticated technique and calculation. In recent years, Abdusattorov is seen as a competitor for Carlsen along with Gugesh D, and Alireza Firouzja.

In conclusion, at the deep core of my theory lies the fact that you could define your outweighing sides through your passion for your favorite chess personalities. If you like the style of some players then you probably share a similar thinking style with this player. And, if you know the style you can win, then you will be able to concentrate on improving your finishing pattern.

I wish you the best, follow your heart, work hard, and you will succeed in some unexpected time.