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Are You A Good Chess Player?
You're probably better than you think.One of the most common question you ask yourself in chess is: Am I a good chess player?
It is very difficult to answer such a question. For Magnus Carlsen anyone outside of top 50 in the world is probably not a strong player.
Meanwhile, for a person who just learned how to play chess everyone looks like a grandmaster. Don't laugh, I know what I am talking about. Some time ago I was at the library and a little kid asked me if I could play him in a game of chess, it would be rude to say no so I accepted the challenge. I bet the kid in less than 20 moves and he said these exact words: "ARE YOU A GRANDMASTER?!" even though I blundered both Knights and lost a Rook.
It takes years of dedication and hard work to achieve a stable rating, so why not be proud of it? It reminds me of people who complain about some minor inconvenience, thinking that it makes their life miserable. They forget that since they have a roof over their head, food on their table, clean water and access to basic sanitation, they already live better than billions of people who don't have these necessities!
Some Statistics
According to USCF data, if you are USCF rated 1600-1699, then you are better then almost 83 percent of all other USCF members! The statistics are from 2004, since I couldn't find more recent data on the USCF website, but my guess is the situation today should be even better for 1600-rated players.
Benjamin Disraeli famously said "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."
You might be the same kind of a person who doesn't trust statistics. Or maybe you simply think that being a good chess player is not about statistics and percentiles; it is about good play! Fair enough.
Puzzle
Just keep in mind that if a chess player has a modest rating it doesn't mean he/she cannot play good chess. Let's do a simple experiment. I'll give you two games. One of them was played by grandmasters in the FIDE World Championship 2021. Another one was played by my friend.
Puzzle
Was the puzzle easy? Please share in the comments if you guessed correctly (or incorrectly!) and what were your clues. I hope I have managed to convince you that being a good chess player is not about ratings, or at least it is not all about ratings.
Test answer:
Game 1:
Game 2:
- GM Magnus Carlsen VS GM Ian Nepomniachtchi
Author notes
Phewwwwwf! That was the longest blog I've ever written! It was pretty tiring to find the right information and write it all down. Please consider to click on the heart icon to like this blog, it would give me motivation to write more blogs in the future.
Thanks again to Unsplash for the photos :)
