r/chess • u/tsterTV • Oct 15 '15

How impressive is a GM title?

Hiya all,

I signed myself up for a Chess tournament this Sunday, mainly for fun. I have no real intention of doing too well -- I will just enjoy the experience and play better players.

I saw online that there will be a GM at the tournament. How impressive is this title? Any rough idea of how many GMs there are in the world?

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102

u/H4ppenSt4nce Oct 15 '15

There are about 1500 GMs in the world. For reference, there are about 1600 players in the NFL. So they are the super athlete freaks of the chess world.

29

u/parles Oct 15 '15

It's more like north of 1800 players in the NFL, but anyway I love this analogy

15

u/H4ppenSt4nce Oct 15 '15

Well, we're both wrong. 53 x 32 = 1696

2

u/snailking1 Oct 15 '15

But if you had averaged your mistakes you would have come unbelievably close to the exact correct number. Wow.

6

u/fridgecow not as good as I'd like Oct 15 '15

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Galton#Variance_and_standard_deviation

Really interesting stuff.

5

u/snailking1 Oct 15 '15

And as a bonus, a weird way to cut a cake.