You will not become a GrandMaster without this

I am currently studying with a team of psychologists and methodologists (in the field of education) how people develop skills: from the level of a master to the level of a grandmaster. It is this transition, from master to grandmaster, when stagnation in development occurs; it seems like you know everything, but you can’t always apply it 100%.

The responses from the masters and grandmasters (thank you for your response and feedback!) are given below and are roughly arranged in descending order of importance - from the most important to the least important.

Outstanding performance and discipline

The key reason that everyone mentions. Moving to the master and especially grandmaster level requires discipline, hard work. A lot of hard work! Those who do not want or cannot work like champions do not become champions. Yes, hard work alone is not enough, but there is no way without it, there are no easy ways here. Alas (and maybe fortunately), even geniuses and talents will have to work hard.

Psychological stability and the ability to work under stress

Many masters have specifically noted that the main obstacle to the title of grandmaster for them was the problem with stress and excitement. Especially when there are many games in a tournament, with a long time control, and the future career and, in many ways, life depend on the result. Excitement does not allow you to think clearly and quickly - one mistake and the game, and with it the entire tournament, can go down the drain. It may not be obvious, but sports psychology and psychological stability are very important when we talk about achieving the highest level of skill.

Working with an experienced coach

On the way to the title of grandmaster, it is extremely important to immediately get into the hands of a good coach who will lay the foundation for a correct understanding of chess and an approach to training. Coaches who teach incorrect openings and traps can quickly teach a young athlete to defeat weak opponents, but in the future this will become a serious limitation. Strong opponents cannot be defeated in traps, and without a fundamental base, there is no way. After working with an incompetent coach, retraining will be difficult, long, painful (defeats will begin, habits will be broken).

Talent and genetic predisposition to chess

Talent is important, but contrary to popular belief, it is not the most important factor in achieving the title of grandmaster. There are many examples of talented children who, without due discipline and hard work, buried their talent in the ground and did not achieve anything outstanding. Talent is like a seasoning to the main dish: without talent, it is difficult to reach the highest level, but talent alone is absolutely not enough. You will need talent if you want to become not just a grandmaster, but a world champion - this is the drop that often separates the best from the very best.

Start playing chess in early childhood

Many grandmasters start playing chess early in life, between the ages of 5 and 8. Training a child to solve chess problems affects their brain development and provides benefits that cannot be achieved by starting to play chess seriously as a teenager, much less as an adult.

Love of chess

Yes, it happens that a person plays chess without any particular love for the game, when his parents forced him to go to chess, it just happened that way. When a person truly loves what he does, good results come faster and easier. Love for one's work gives rise to a desire to experiment, to study the subject more deeply, and forms creative thinking. Without love for chess, it will be impossible to give up other pleasures and entertainment in life (especially for children, when their peers are carefree and playing, and not working on chess for the result).

The opportunity to play in tournaments

It turns out that there is such a reason. Obtaining titles requires participation in tournaments, flights, accommodation. All this is not cheap. It may be much easier and cheaper for a person who lives in the capital to travel to tournaments than for someone who lives in remote areas. An unobvious factor, many have noted it. In addition to financial costs, the family situation and the ability to accompany a child to a tournament also play a role.

These are the main reasons-obstacles that we have identified that stand in the way of a master to obtain the title of grandmaster. There are also smaller reasons that mainly follow from those listed above.

P.S. #1
If anyone has anything to add to this list, I'd be glad to hear your feedback (please write to me in private messages or on the forum). This will help to study the topic more fully. And for chess players who aspire to obtain the title of grandmaster, it will be a useful reminder and motivation on the path that awaits them and which I wish them to walk with dignity!

P.S. #2
If you are a strong player (2200+ in bullet, blitz, rapid on Lichess), master, grandmaster and want to take part in future research on the development of chess mastery - write me a private message on Lichess. We still have many interesting and useful questions for the chess community to research! It will not take much time, and I will simply sometimes ask you to answer interesting questions about chess.