Boring GM's life

If you are going to be a Grand Master in chess, you need to know that your life will be boring and really stressful. Why do I think that?

Let me explain some things first.
No, I am not a GM and I'm not going to be at all.
Based on my experience in tournaments in Spain and Poland I see, that many GMs and IMs play in tournaments for money. They need to play for money, because they do not have any other possibility.
As we all know, if we are going to be GM we need to devote large part of our life (very often including school, job, family). And in many cases it is as I mentioned. I have seen a lot of GMs and IMs from Poland, Eastern Europe, South Europe, Latin America, USA, etc., so I know what I am saying.
Their life is boring, because they go from one tournament to another with expectation to win something. They do not have job (as they didn't care about it in the past). But they need money, so what they can do is only to play chess.
I see they do not have any pleasure with playing chess. They only think about money.
Funny thing is that if there are a few big tournaments (I met such situations several times in Madrid), so for example 5 GMs discuss where to play. And for example two of them play in one tournament, two of them in another, etc., so there is a big chance that all of them will be happy.
I know that many of you will not agree with me. But please understand that I'm not talking about top GMs, but only about ones with ratings 2400-2550. There are a lot of such players in the world.
Why their life is boring? It is boring, because their life is unsure. They do not know if they will be able to survive next months. They need to play, because they need money. They cannot do anything beside playing chess. Usually they cannot any skills needed to perform normal job.
Maybe from other perspective it doesn't look boring (I mean from perspective of weak player), but in real it is not lucky life.
The conclusion is that if you are going to be a Grand Master and you are going to devote everything you need to be a top player. Only such players have a happy life.

Crazy Elo rating

If you don't have Elo rating yet, be carefull who do you play with. If you want to go on the list with reasonable rating it is important to play with opponents with similar rating we feel we should have.

This is funny, but if you play againts opponents with poor ratings you will go on the list, but... with poor ratings. If you play against strong opponents (and you loose most games), your rating will be also poor.
Decreasing the level of Elo rating was a big mistake of FIDE. I know they need money, but for now ratings between 1500-2100 are not showing the real level of player. You will play in the tournament against not relevant players, you rating will be wrong. For example you feel you have skills on 1900 Elo, but due to some poor games you will be listed with 1500 Elo rating.
Increasing 400 points of Elo rating will take you years...
So the conclusion is that you should carefully select tournaments you are going to play in.

Online chess kills this sport

sxc.hu

Are you shocked? I know you are. This opinion is not very popular among chess players. You will ask, how it is possible?

Let me explain you a few things.
First of all, in tournaments play less player. Especially weak player will ask: what to play in expensive tournamet as I don't have chance to win any prize and pay a lot of money for that? I can play with GM, IM or FM players for free via internet. Impossible? No! Please register at any chess website, try to gain reasonable rating and invite strong player for a game. There is no problem to play with them.
The other possibility is to play in online chess tournaments. If there is swiss system (usually it is), you have a big opportunity to play with them in first round.
Another one reason that online chess kills this sport is that there are not so many people who wants to teach kids playing chess. Especially in Poland 10-15 years ago there were a lot of people who could work with young people. Now there are not so many people. I don't mean big clubs, but the smaller ones.
Teachers want money for their work and I fully understand them.
The other thing is that if you play online, you can meet people from around a world. If you play chess in your area, you have still the same opponents and it may be a bit boring.
I'm wondering what do you think about my point of view mentioned above. Do you agree with this opinion?

I'm not alone

In one chess forum I found a topic about Elo rating. People discuss about it and they reflect if the rating is necessary?

In my point of view it is helpful, but not necessary. It helps us to show the level of our skills at current time. But we need to know that Elo rating will not help us to be a stronger player.
I noticed that some people play for rating. They don't want to improve their skills, but the most important thing for them is just to have higher rating. I totally don't understand it. What is the sense to have higher rating if somebody with lower rating will be able to easily beat us?
The other thing is that today I can have a rating 2600 and not play chess at all for a long time. In next 5 years I will have the same rating, but only in theory, because in real my rating will be around 2450 or even less. That's why I say, that the rating is not important for us. These are just digits close to our name, nothing more.
I like reading what people say about ratings, because each opinion is different. Each user of forum motivate his point of view different.

Kasparov advertises bank

Everyone needs money. I need, you need, they need. Chess players also need money. If you are the world champion you need much more money.

If you have a "good" surname, it's very easy to earn. Good example is Garri Kasparov. One of the best player in the history of our sport adverts the bank. It's hard to imagine how much does he earn for that, but it's a lot of money.
Important is that this advert is funny. It shows that even chess players have sense of humor.
In general chess doesn't appear too often in the TV. Sometimes in films. Rarely in adverts. As far as I remember last time I saw the advert of pills with chess in background.

FIDE organization earns on us

Do we really need an Elo ratings? If so, why do we need it? Are we more happy having four digits close to our name?

I think we don't need it at all, but some people need. Who? Of course people from FIDE organization.
The thing is that they decided to decrease elo rating, because it is perfect opportunity to earn a lot of money. This is simple: more players have licenses, more money is on FIDE account.
Funny thing is that Polish organization PZSzach. did realize it and decided to go the same way. If you want to achieve Polish category or title, you don't need to count Elo rating (which is usually smaller than Polish). They take into account Polish rating and you have more chance to get the title or category. Especially central categories are important for Polish chess organization, because in case you have the title or category, you need to pay them for that.
In last year they lost a lot of money due to the situation the title or category have been counted from Elo rating.
But what does it mean for us? If we have a title or category, does it mean that we are strong? Or do we play better?

Expensive game

Chess is the game which is expensive. Even if you think it isn't expensive, you are wrong.

I was thinking how much do I need to achieve a success in this sport (whatever it means...).
What is my conclusion?
First of all, I would need a couch. The person who will be teaching me is most important cost in my career. Not everyone can be a teacher, so if I want to have a good person I need to spend a lot of money.
I need to have also rich parents. They should be able to pay for everything you need.
I cannot work at all, because I need a lot of time for trainings (let's say 6 hours per day).
I need money for tournaments. I don't mean the ones with poor player. I need to play in strong tournaments with high ratings. There is no sense to play againts opponents with the same level like me.
As you can imagine, life of chess player is not easy. The problem may be if you spend a lot of money and immediately you realize you don't like this game or... you don't have talent? What then?
Try to imagine if chess is really the sport you want to train.

Do you like chess?

Do you like chess? Who doesn't like, you'll answer. And you're right. Everybody likes it. Everybody beside me.

Why? This is good question. I hope I will be able to explain my point of view.
I liked to play chess for many years. It was my passion, my life. This game was my favorite one. Of course I played in many others like table games, card games, etc. But chess was always priority.
Now the situation is a bit different. I like playing chess, but I don't like this game. I don't like it, because I understand there is a level which cannot be achieved by me. And it will never be achieved. You will ask me: why?
The answer is simple: due to lack of time. The thing is that I will not be able to win with oppponents which have and Elo rating highre than me more than 200-300. Maybe in 3 minutes it is possible to win, but in longer game there is no chance to do it. But people with higher ratings spends on chess a lot of time. The talent is not sufficient, even if I think I do maybe have it.
I realized it and I know that without hard working I won't be stronger.
The other thing is that everyday I'm getting older, so my mind is going to work more poor. This is another one reason why to not like this game. I know the younger players are getting stronger and they can easy win with me. Without any problem.
I don't like losing. Nobody likes.
So why did I decide to create this blog? The answer is easy. I want to write about this game which was main part of my life. And it's not wasting time writing about chess, because I like it.