How hard is 1600 rating?

Hey,

I just started to play chess and really got interested and want to know more about the game.
I wonder how hard and how long it will or could take to get to 1600 rating?
Im 21 and just wonder if its too late for me to get to this rating

With kind regards

It's hard to talk about since ratings are like currency. 100 USD and 100 JYP are very different values. Rating depends not only on the website and rating category, but also the time control. For example 10+0 rapid is not the same as 10+15 rapid... but just like currency, some are nearly the same, and some are wildly different.

Most beginners talk in terms of 10+0 rapid. It's the most played time control, and one that most new players are pretty comfortable with.

For 10+0 rapid on chess.com, I wouldn't be surprised to see a person rated 1600 in one year, but I'd expect them to have played 1000s of games and solved 1000s of puzzles. In other words the hours per day would be high. For someone 21 years old this is certainly possible, but I'd say 2 years or longer is more realistic.

Of all the ratings, OTB (over the board) ratings are the hardest. Even so, starting at 21 is not too late to reach 1600 OTB, but again, I'd expect it to take a few years.

I started a year ago and got to 1500, so its never too late

Assuming you are a player who is dedicated to become a GM. You spend half of your time playing and another half to studying chess. Because of this, the average amount of time to spend before you become a GM is 10,000 hours. A GM have 2,400 elo. Elo strength is computed by exponential formula (10 ^ (elo/400)). Assume you only play a 10 minute chess (that is 20 minutes in total)

Here is the following computation:

elo strength: 10 ^ (2,400/400) = 1,000,000

Number of hours to play a game: 10,000 / 2 = 5,000

Number of hours to study a game: 10,000 / 2 = 5,000

Number of 10 minute chess: 5,000 x 3 = 15,000

Elo strength gain per game and study = 1,000,000 / 15,000 = 67

If you are 0 elo from the start, this will estimate the number of this routine before you reach 1600 elo.

Elo strength needed: 10 ^ ((1600-0)/400) = 10,000

No. of routine: 10,000 / 67 = 150.

Huh? 2400 is not GM 2500 is. Also, 10,000 hours is far too little to become GM! I would estimate closer to 12,400 assuming you start under the age of 10 and you play 3 hours a day from my rough calculations. Also, you cannot assume a 10-minute game will last 20 minutes. Logically it shall last approximately 13-15 minutes on average. Also, you are comparing online ratings to in-person ratings which will throw off the math. In other words, you cannot say that 150 repetitions of the routines give or take will grant a rating of 1,600.

And assuming no lag, a 10 minute game is strictly under 20 minutes, because it's impossible for both players to run out of time.

In his math, he assumed 20 minutes! It would have to be less on average!

I took the average length of a person of 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 which will be his path to 1600 then from the 700 games (100 for each rating) it came out to 14 minutes 20 seconds.

Not many people on this planet would be able to get to 1600. Only the chosen ones could.

hard

There's no way to answer your question without additional context. Any of the answers given here are just general guidelines at best. These might not be applicable to you.

The only information we have is that you have attempted 5 puzzles, all of them extremely low rated. You failed the one puzzle that was rated over 400. It's not much to go on, but it's an indication that general guidelines should be adjusted to your personal situation. For you, the road to 1600 will be harder and take considerably longer.

Anything is possible, with the right amount of effort and luck.

About a 7 on the Mohs scale.

I agree.

so hard

Hi

Okay. Since vivaantana corrected me. Sorry for being lazy. I forgot to look it up on google. Okay. A GM is 2,500 elo and you need 12,400 hours to get there. I will compute the following.

Elo Strength: 10 ^ (2500/400) = 1,778,280

No. of hours to play a game: 12,400 / 2 = 6,200

No. of hours to study chess: 12,400 / 2 = 6,200

Assuming you only play a 10 minute chess: That's a total of 13 minute

You also need to study 13 minute after it.

1 hour = 60 / 13 = 4.6

No. of routine needed to become a GM: 6,200 * 4.6 = 28,520

Elo strength gain per routine: 1,778,280 / 28,520 = 62

Assuming you started from 0 elo.

Elo strength of 1600 = 10 ^ 1600/400 = 10,000

No. of routine needed to become 1600 from 0: 10,000 / 62 = 162

I plugged all the numbers and it turns out to be 162.

I think it also depends on the time controls. Like most of the players like me better at longer time controls.
By the way I'm 37. I had played chess occasionally when I was young with my parents for a year or two, than I didn't for a long time. Just 3-4 years ago I started to play online chess regularly again. I still don't know opennings, counter opennings, didn't read any books. Just play regularly and watch games of champs like carlsen or nakamura. Just with that my blitz is around 1600, rapid is around 1700, but bullet is around 1400.
For me to reach to 1600s at bullet is very tough. I should really use my memory, learn many common openings, counter opennings, so I can reponse like a reflex without thinking all over for the position. Cuz there is no time for the bullet, you should already know stuff. But in blitz or better in rapid, even if you don't know opennings, you can most of the time use your knowledge to analyse any position.
So it's like chess 960 for gm's. They usually know lots of opennings with even different variations to even 20 steps as computer. So they don't have to think much. They just have to decide on which variation they wanna go, do they wanna play the same game which they have played at 2016 in one competition, or do they wanna play the variation they have played at 2018 february They can even remember those games. So it's like playing against the computer to the 15-20 steps. And you can already win any games in bullet against 1400-1600 rated players if you can play like a book(comp) for 15-20 moves. 
Long story short, you can reach 1600s in blitz or rapid if you just play regularly in probably 2 years. Without even knowing openings. But in bullet, you should already know couple of openings and counter responses for at least 7-8 steps. In blitz and rapid, best way to reach to 1600s is to decide an opening for white and black, even if you don't know the name or tactics for it. If you consistently stick on same opening, eventually you will get much better at them. For the first year, I was usually trying different openings on my each game even tho I didn't know anything about them. After I get this advice from someone, my ratings started to increase distinctly.

The global average chess rating is about 660 on chess.com, so most people never come close to 1600...ever.

The good news for you is that this is because most people only play chess as one of many hobbies. It isn't too difficult to pass 1000 chess.com rating if you are willing to work on chess a lot and invest the effort into learning and improving. For many people, their first chess goal is to reach 1000 rating and this can often times be reached after just a few months of learning (some people reach it sooner and others take longer).

1600 is much higher though. It isn't impossible, but 1600 rating will probably take someone about 2-3 years if they work really hard on their chess. It is difficult to generalize these things though because everyone is different and learns at their own pace. Maybe you'll reach 1600 faster than 2 years. Maybe you'll take longer than this. Maybe you'll never reach 1600. The only way to know is to try and work hard towards it. I wouldn't worry much about how long it takes you. It is more important to keep the focus on learning and improvement. If you do this, then your rating will eventually catch up to you.