First of all, its never too old to do anything that you can do. 18 is very young and you've already got experience under your belt with tournaments. I'm 30 and I just started last month. I go to college and I work, but I still put in some time learning chess.
The average adult tournament player tends to be about 1500. In my opinion, a “good” rating for someone that is 18 might be 1800+.
You're never too young, or old for chess! Keep trying and you will get better at it. Don't let age stop you from playing the best board game of all time.
A late starter can absolutely become a master (2200 USCF/2100 FIDE) if they have a decent study plan and are able to play good tournaments, and if they are willing to make it the primary focus of their life.
Before a player's early 20s, performance on the chessboard appears to increase rapidly. Skill then appears to reach a plateau around 35 years of age, peak at age 40, and begin to steadily decline after age 45.
The researchers found that the “survival rates” of grandmasters aged 30 and 60 were 87% and 15% respectively. A 30-year old grandmaster has a life expectancy of 53.6 years, compared to 45.9 years for the general population. Grandmasters in North America and Western Europe lived longer than those in Eastern Europe.
It is 102. Levy also scored 102 on his IQ test. IQ is only a small factor in being a good chess player. Much more important are things like determination and perseverance, and of course a love of chess.
Most prodigies who are GMs at a young age don't necessarily have to have an overall high IQ, but the section of the test called “perceptual reasoning” which measures problem solving, calculation, and the ability to visualize steps of a problem in the mind almost certainly needs to be quite high.
Many chess experts believe that most top chess players peak somewhere around age 35-40. For instance, this figure is given by GM and Doctor of Science in Psychology, Nikolai Krogius.
A chess ranking system is based on a rating mechanism that will generally have a range of 400 to 2000+. In other words, a professional chess competitor will begin with an average chess rating of 400. As a chess player keeps winning or losing games in official chess tournaments, the rating will either go up or down.
If you are motivated enough, age becomes just a number. I did start relatively late at 16-17, but by then I was already a decent player – my initial rating was 2220. Starting late didn't affect me – I always feel young in my mind.
Can you get good at chess just by playing? As the old maxim tells us – practice makes perfect. Likewise, you can only improve your chess skills by playing as many matches as possible. Take the chance to practice your skills on the chessboard without fearing losing the game to a less deserving opponent.
1200 – A budding chess player who can understand some basic chess strategies. 1600 – A player among the top scholastic players on a state or national level. 2000 – Expert Level – A milestone hit by a handful of chess players while they are in grade school. 2200 – Minimum rating to be considered a “Chess Master”.
Is 700 elo a good chess rating? 700 is a decent chess rating for a beginner playing rapid on Chess.com. And what's fun about being rated 700 is that you can improve a lot very quickly. There's so many things to learn still!
1800 is an advanced chess rating. You cannot get to 1800 rating without studying chess seriously and playing hundreds or thousands of games. It's a very high percentile of chess players that have 1800 rating or higher. You play pretty well and then you blunder your queen.
I wouldn't want to know it anyway. It might turn out to be a nasty surprise.” A few experts estimated Magnus Calsen's IQ to be around 190. Regardless of his IQ, it is no doubt that he is a chess wizard. GM Vladimir Kramnik called Magnus Carlsen a “close to genius” during the 2014 World Championship.
The starting age for grandmasters varies quite a bit, but almost all of them start in the single-digit ages. We are going to assume our hypothetical grandmaster starts playing chess at the age of seven. There are some FIDE Candidate Masters that are as young as nine or ten years old on the most recent rating list.
Chess is often seen as a game for geniuses, with its complex strategies and deep thinking required for success. However, this notion of chess as a game for geniuses is largely a myth. In reality, chess does not necessarily make you smart, and it is not naturally tailored in favor of smart people.
There is no conclusive evidence that you will inherently be a good chess player if you have a high IQ. So yes, you can be both smart and bad at chess. Similarly, being good at chess is not a reliable indicator of intelligence.
115 to 129: Above average or bright. 130 to 144: Moderately gifted. 145 to 159: Highly gifted. 160 to 179: Exceptionally gifted.
An IQ score of 120 is a good score since it means superior or above-average intelligence. What is a good IQ score? A score of 100 is said to be the average IQ and anything above that is above average intelligence for the person's age.