What Does It Take To Reach National Master? | Dojo Talks ft. Ben Johnson (Perpetual Chess) 

"It's practically impossible to gain more than 100 points after you have hit your plateau and if you do gain more than 100 points you probably hadn't reached your plateau" - No true Scotsman if ever I saw one ^^

GM Mihai Suba started playing chess at 19. I'm not sure what that tells us about how achievable NM is for most people, but it's another fact to throw into the mix.

Great stuff... Mainly, the honesty is refreshing!

Ben is the best, a great advocate for chess.

Great talk. Love the both the Perpetual Chess Pod and the DojoTalks Pod. Go Ben (but stay there)

Great interview and discussion

Awesome hearing Ben get interviewed for a change.

That thumbnail is very disturbing.

As someone who only started playing in adulthood I feel like National Master is the only title I can even allow myself to dream of attaining, and even then it does seem like it's probably out of reach no matter how much I study but I'm looking forward to hearing what these guys' thoughts are.

Wonderful episode.

I would advise getting your kids into chess so that you can play while they play and it can be a family thing and you can do OTB events together as a family. Then as a family do post mortems and cheer eachother on. This way it isn't chess or family - pick one which is awkward.

Good luck on your journey, Ben 😊

Hearing consistently that improving significantly at chess is "impossible" unless you started in grade school just motivates me to work harder.

Loved it

there's two very conflicting issues about this: 1) what is possible for healthy average people, and 2) what is FEASIBLE for the average joe. the first one deals with ability, and I suspect the ceiling is MUCH higher there than NM. but the second one deals with reality, life issues, how you were brought up, other commitments, time, energy, and so on. these are much more limiting than the actual ability side of things, and I strongly believe THIS is the wall people struggle with. especially adult learners, who lack the free time, ENERGY and lack of commitments children have. a kid doesn't worry about paying rent, nazis marching on the streets, not even the oppression he'll face later due to whatever he was born as. the kid can largely just obsess over chess without limits up to 10-12yo at least. and he'll often even have a capable coach telling him what to do and pushing him when his own will wavers. an adult has to struggle with everything, and somehow also have the ENERGY to train hard daily for 10 years. and that's just not feasible for an adult. even if he has the will, it just takes pathological and unhealthy obsession to be able to push yourself hard enough as an adult. and it's very very rare for an adult to have both the resources AND the burning ambition to do that.

Listening to this guy's excellent podcasts I thought he was 70 years old! 😅

Couldn't be said much better: 'Rook Endgame Progression against player in your cohort is golden.' Check the 46:55 mark. Hour for hour in terms of efficacy... EXCELLENT ADVICE!!!

I played a few sparring matches in the end game. Playing the same position over and over let you see how things could be played out, and lets you notice subtle differences. I wasn't sold on them either at first but I definitely enjoyed them more as I continued to do them.

At 0:18 Jesse says Ben's quest is to reach National Master but Ben already is. I assume Jesse meant getting back to 2200 rating.

Ben! I played in high school but only started playing seriously again in 2015. I am 34 with a kid on the way. When I make expert, I’ll let you know if I intend to go for my NM. Have a good day!

Ben! You're awesome, but your resistance regarding the "sparring" 43:00 could be a symptom of something that holds your chess back. Shouldn't you listen to Jesse (or your coach) more deeply? It's not "wasted" time (unless you're already chronically stuck behind some kind of mental block/blindspot.) I also noticed some resistance to the idea that rapid and blitz do not count for improvement nearly as much as classical. You're in a hurry! But I think Jesse's point is that your improvement (at your level) is a bit more about depth/quality than quantity. Isn't "calculation" for blitz and rapid all about developing the best poor habits when compared to your calculation for classical?

I just think life happens after 30... not enough free time to improve fast enough to reach titles range ratings. Chess rating is not just an individual scale, it depends on everyone else skill as well, and if everyone is improving it just takes a lot of effort to reach higher ratings.

Really enjoyed the discussion - Thanks for this. Have y'all ever tested diets and their impact on performance? I ask because I work in IT and have been on the KETO diet before. I was amazed after a day of strenuous mental work that my mind was as clear and fresh as it was early in the morning after a good night sleep. I felt like I could go another 8 hours easily. It was amazing but staying on KETO can be a challenge sometimes because I love carbs so much.

Marcel Duchamp became a master level player later in life. His chess obsession began in his 30s but there is no information on his chess strength prior to that.

One thing i do not like about this channel is that the moderators have always a negative tone and speak pessimistically about people who have not played in their younger age to make in to master in chess. I think it is rather easy and does not require this much stress and pessimism.

I started playing chess at age 39. I have a backgroud in Texas Hold'em, Bridge and many other games, and I did learn the basic moves as a child. I have no Fide rating, but after four years of training I have beaten 1800 rated club players OTB. My progress is slow, but I suppose I could reach 2000+ before age 50, if I would keep at it. But why should I focus my time on such goal? I have more urgent obligations to meet, at this point in life.

Lol That thumbnail ahahah

From my personal research on the topic of improving at tactics I strongly believe calculation in general and tactics is strongly related with intelligence / mind sharpness / IQ , this sort of stuff, thus anything you can do to improve your brain performance will help you improve at calculation/tactics, good sleep, good eating habits, substances like caffeine, good health/ body fitness, etc. My grandpa was very very fit in all aspects, body and mind until he died from cancer at around age of 80, so if he could wake up every morning and go running and stuff and stay fit, I do believe anyone can with enough will and good habits, and thus can play good chess as well. You can't expect to play good chess if you just sit in a chair and eat bad foods at an older age.

I often have trouble explaining myself even in a post mortem right after the game, and even after spending several minutes on that move during the game. About to turn 41...

Hello! This seems to indicate to me the issues with trying to improve and with chess coaching. In my opinion, the reason for a plateau is refusal to improve the parts of chess that you do not enjoy and are not good at. Improvement comes with objectivity and the ability to force yourself to do and enjoy your weakness. Typically, people concentrate on openings because they are in a social context, whereas endgames are ignored because they are austere. I'm a fairly good player and I get regularly destroyed in the opening by players rated 500 lower. More generally, you will not improve to master level if you play for enjoyment. This is reflected in coaching. In ordered to keep their charges, coaches will not directly identify weak points, e.g., tell students to stop studying openings. Chess coaches are like psychologists, their patients never improve but don't die. In this instance, the clear weakness is tactics and refusal to improve by refusing to do Puzzle Rush. It appears to me that Puzzle Rush is directly correlated to rating, so I would tell this person to stop reading and not come back until he has 45 at 5m Puzzle Rush (which seem to be at master level).

For the 50 rated games per year, what time control meets that requirement?

Smash the like 👍 button

34:00

Im trying to get to 1500

am i the only one who thinks his voice is very similar to Yasser's voice sometimes.. ?

do these guys ever get around to talking about how to reach national master? Had to turn it off after 21 minutes of non stop babble.

Oh my fuckn goodness that bs has come to chess to the only thing that ive bragged about not having to deal with while watching an playing chess

Obviously there is something to the idea that adults have less learning capacity than kids, but I wonder if it's a very overrated reason cited for why adults have difficulty improving at least for folks in their 20s to 40s. To me, the much more obvious reason adults struggle to improve is competing interests and responsibilities. Not that kids have no responsibilities, but it just doesn't compare. A kid who is keen on chess and has a supportive family can spend most of their non-school waking hours studying and playing chess. Like any talented kids, talented chess kids are more often than not wealthy or have families willing to make huge sacrifices (travel, moving continents, GM coaches, training camps) to support their interest. It's just not possible for adults to match that kind of work ethic unless they are wealthy and retired and have few family obligations, and by then usually health is starting to fail, mental faculties are strongly declining (compared to an adult improver in their 30s or 40s). I think if you put a 30 year old on a GM-in-training program and gave them all the time and material advantages of elite youth players, maybe they wouldn't be top 10 in the world kind of good, but I think they could make GM.

No adult takes up painting as a past time at, say, age 30 and figures it's just a matter of time before he/she reaches the level of skill of Michelangelo. Yet adults pick up chess and figure there's a chance they can make grandmaster. Not gonna happen. The older I get, the more I've come to see chess as an art form, masquerading as a sport and a science. Maybe this is one of the downsides of this militantly egalitarian age we live in: we believe with hard work we can be the equal of masters, and that no one is inherently better than anyone else. False.

That thumbnail is the gayest thing I ever did done seen.

Great video. Is there any book that helps you improve visualization so as to be able to calculate longer lines?