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A comment on On Learning Chess as an Adult – From 650 to 1750 in Two Years. Parent comment

Re:On Learning Chess as an Adult – From 650 to 1750 in Two Y... by tikej on Monday November 16, 2020 @05:37AM (#25110209)
It is a cool series but nowhere near real description of chess. Of course it’s ok, but it’s worth to remember, that in order to get to the international level you need excellent coaches and years of brutal many hour practice. Talent is somewhat important but nowhere as important as training.

To have more objective outlook at “chess prodigy” story it’s interesting to look story of Joshua Waitzkin. He is a great and talented chess player but not at the level of grandmasters. He explained that he didn’t really wanted to “sacrifice” other things in his life to become a grandmaster.

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Re:On Learning Chess as an Adult – From 650 to 1750 in Two Y... by nebulous1 on Monday November 16, 2020 @10:43AM (#25113028)
> Talent is somewhat important but nowhere as important as training.

Generally agreed on your post but I don't think I agree with this. You aren't making it to GM without an extreme amount of talent. Training is likely to be required too, but I'd say it's much more likely that an extremely talented but untrained person could make GM vs an not-so-talented person with rigorous training. Basically I'm saying that the vast majority of people would never be able to become a GM regardless of training.

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Re:On Learning Chess as an Adult – From 650 to 1750 in Two Y... by francisofascii on Monday November 16, 2020 @10:00AM (#25112411)
For those who might be unaware, the movie "Searching for Bobby Fischer" is about Josh Waitzkin.
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Re:On Learning Chess as an Adult – From 650 to 1750 in Two Y... by drexlspivey on Monday November 16, 2020 @03:33PM (#25116656)
Mikhail Botvinik who was the world champion between 1948-1963 (with two brief 1-year disruptions) also had a career as an electrical engineer during his peak chess years
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Re:On Learning Chess as an Adult – From 650 to 1750 in Two Y... by newen on Monday November 16, 2020 @03:11PM (#25116430)
It's a good argument but also consider the alternative that Waitzkin might not have enough talent and he is saying that to protect his ego.
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