It would be an exaggeration to say that I know how to play chess. Yes, when I was a kid I learned how to move the pieces and also a few basic principles (control the center, develop knights before bishops, etc). That doesn’t entitle me to say that I am a chess player. But one of my projects for 2024 (yes, I have many projects) is to properly learn how to play chess.
I have a plan. I will start by creating an account on chess.com. Then, before playing any real games, I will study all their tutorials and practice a bit against the computer. Only after all that I will start playing against other players, and analyzing my games in the hope of learning from my mistakes. I will play rapid games, ten minutes for each player, which I think is a good time control for a beginner like me. Their system pairs players of similar levels, so I believe I will advance fast through the rankings at the beginning, until I reach my real level. Then I will start getting paired against players who are a bit stronger than me, and that’s when I will have to get used to losing more than winning.
I’ve established a quantifiable goal for this project. Actually, two goals. One realistic and one optimistic. According to the International Chess Federation (FIDE), the best players in the world, usually called super grand masters, have a rating above 2700. On December 2023, only 35 people in the whole world were part of that elite group. And only one was above the 2800 mark. That’s Norwegian GM Magnus Carlsen, possibly the best player of all time. The ratings at chess.com are a bit above the FIDE ratings, so I will round up the top rating to 3000 (for someone like me, 2700 is as unattainable as 3000) and use that number as a reference for my goals. The realistic goal is to reach one third of that mark, a rating of 1000. That would make me comfortable saying I know how to play chess. The optimistic goal is to reach 40% of that mark, a rating of 1200. Anything beyond that would require an enormous effort and may not even be possible. But it’s good to have goals.