Any masters who started late

@Sarg0n Multiaccounting I see......

#230 is worthy for a short ban from the forum. How do I report this to the moderators?

In my opinion there is a popular misconception that you need to start chess at a young age to become titled it has noting to do with with young age but to do more with your opportunities that you have can anyone name me 3 titled players right now that became titled when they were a Junior without the help of an NM CM IM FM or GM coach or without obtaining their titles in Junior tournaments? the fact is if you have money you can become titled as you can afford Titled coaches and you can afford to travel and go to many tournaments i know some players who have titles are are 300+ fide rating below mine just because they can afford to go to more tournaments than i can. If you are passionate about chess and you are in your 20s to 40s of course you can just be willing to spend time and money on coaches and you will eventually become titled.

Interesting opinion by GM Igor Smirnov on this topic:

chess-teacher.com/children-and-adults-in-chess-2/

His remarks are tacit advertisement of his services. Zero scientific/psychological facts to back up his opinion.

@PetarBosnjak it could be. It looked a bit strange that he says "...and I can tell you numerous examples!" and yet he never names one single example. Maybe someone should ask him

@hurryupdude Your comment concerning travel and tournaments reminds me of a young, recently titled (FM) Indian friend of mine (ratings.fide.com/id.phtml?event=35011685) who experienced a 500 point surge in his rating in 2017. When I asked him to what he attributed this, he said: tactics and tournaments in Spain.

I don’t know why but it seems many Indian chess players keen on obtaining a title or improving their rating favour tournaments in Europe.

Obviously, this requires exceptional financial circumstances as, though I remember India fondly (‘83-84), your average chess player couldn’t even afford to travel to Mumbai (then, Bombay) for a tournament, much less Europe.

@LukaCro #233. @SmithyQ, whom you will know from his wonderful book (www.chessable.com/smithys-opening-fundamentals/course/21302/ ) on Chessable, attributes much of his "breaking through his rating ceiling" to GM Smirnov.

I'm not saying SmithyQ wants to become a Master or that he started playing later in life, which he didn't. Just saying that based on what I know of Smithy, this Smirnov guy has a lot to offer - at a minimum, to less than expert players - for a very reasonable price.

I remember a scientific article about getting master title in chess highly correlated to the number of games played against decent opponents. I didn't make a note about title and authors. Does anyone know something about this

Very well said Pix :)