On Learning Chess as an Adult – From 650 to 1750 in Two Years
I did something very similar with an old strategy game called Age of empires II. Over the course of two years I went from a 1300 rating to 1850. I don&#x27;t play chess, so it&#x27;s hard for me to compare the scales, but I will say the highest players were rated around 2600. I think being 1850 put me around 90-95th percentile for active players-- there were less than 50 players over 2300, and only a few hundred over 2000.<p>My only real commentary is that trying to follow a progression like this can be profoundly, profoundly frustrating. You need to really make sure you&#x27;re enjoying this hobby before you try to dedicate yourself to a trajectory like this. It can really make you feel like shit a lot of the time, as you find yourself continually repeating mistakes that other people breeze past without issue. It takes true love of the game and a great deal of patience and persistence to push through all the downspells.<p>Eventually I decided that I no longer wished to prioritize the game over other things. The enormous time investment was no longer a worthwhile trade-off for me, and I stopped playing almost all together. I haven&#x27;t regretted it since. There&#x27;s just so many things to do in life. I gave it thousands of hours of my time, and now the door is closed on that. Now I&#x27;m learning Ruby on rails!