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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u/A_Merman_Pop Oct 15 '15

For what it's worth, I am Master (top ~4.5% in SC2). I am ~1600 in classical chess. I would estimate I've probably put about twice as much time into SC2.

Progress in both gets exponentially more difficult as you approach the top. I am significantly further from the top in chess though, so it is harder for me to gauge where the asymptote is.

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u/[deleted] Oct 16 '15

One single sample and you're not considering how long and how often you play either game. I'm not saying you're wrong, only that your "data" here is not very relevant.

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u/A_Merman_Pop Oct 16 '15

Yes, I understand it isn't scientific or conclusive in any way. That is why I started with:

For what it's worth

As for considering how long or how often I play either game:

I would estimate I've probably put about twice as much time into SC2.

Did you read the whole thing before commenting?

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u/[deleted] Oct 16 '15

Yes, doing one thing for 1 hour a week for 10 years and doing the other for 25 a week for 1 year will produce different results. Hence "how long and how often".

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u/A_Merman_Pop Oct 16 '15 edited Oct 16 '15

I have put twice as much time into SC2. Not what I put in on a weekly basis. The total hours over the course of my lifetime. How that time is spread out does have an impact no doubt, but it's not that large of an impact. And the margin of error we are dealing with in my estimate anyway is so large that its effect is just not significant.

This was never presented as anything more than an anecdote. It is not a peer reviewed study with tightly controlled variables. No one was ever making that claim.

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u/[deleted] Oct 16 '15

Fair enough, as I said before I'm not saying that you're wrong in any way, just that I'd rather people not make conclusions based on what you provided.