Road To GM

Posted: August 19, 2025

I play chess. A lot of chess.

According to Chess.com, I've played nearly 5,000 rapid 10-minute games. Assuming each game averages 5 minutes of actual play time, that's 25,000 minutes—roughly 417 hours—of pure rapid chess. But that's not even the whole picture. My puzzle training time dwarfs that at 478 hours and 9 minutes.

As I approach 1,000 hours devoted to this 64-square obsession, I find myself asking four fundamental questions:

• Why did I do this?
• What do I have to show for it?
• What do I stand to gain?
• What comes next?

My Playing Style: Beautiful Chaos

I often joke that my greatest strength is correctly evaluating piece sacrifices and then playing them regardless of my evaluation. There's something deeply flawed yet oddly effective about this approach. I have an overwhelming desire to win spectacularly, even when it comes at the cost of winning at all.

In positions where I hold a decisive advantage, I frequently risk it all in pursuit of something greater—a crushing attack, a brilliant combination, a game worth remembering. I employ what I call a probabilistic approach: I study my opponents' tendencies based on their rating and previous moves, then design traps specifically tailored to exploit their likely weaknesses.

This strategy is undeniably risky. It creates massive variance in my rating and demands that I play significantly above my opponents' level to maintain consistency. But understanding why I play this way requires going back to the beginning.

The Origin Story: 173 ELO and Counting

My chess journey began in 2019 in our office lunchroom, where I lost consistently to everyone. Humbled but intrigued, I created my Chess.com account on November 3, 2019, and downloaded the app.

What followed was brutal: I lost 17 straight games before recording my first legitimate win (not counting abandonments). In the process, I plummeted from the default rating to a crushing 173 ELO.

But something shifted after that first victory. The wins started coming more frequently. Playing 5-10 rapid games daily during lunch breaks, I began my climb:

• November 2019: Nearly 350
• December: Nearly 600
• January 2020: 700
• February: 640 (the first painful dip)
• April: 840
• June: Broke 1000 for the first time

From there, the journey becomes a blur of YouTube videos, games, more YouTube, more games. Chess became my escape—first from the social isolation of quarantine, then from monotonous lectures, college stress, and deeper self-esteem struggles.

Where I Stand Today

Nearly six years later, I can confidently say I'm pretty good at chess. In a single-elimination bracket of every Chess.com user, I'd probably survive 5-7 rounds depending on the draw.

The numbers tell their own story:

• 241 brilliant moves (rapid games only)
• Victories against titled players in Puzzle Rush, including Hikaru's father while he was streaming 😏
• Openings I've invented that shouldn't work—but somehow do
• Opponents from 161 countries and territories
• 82 friends made through the game
• Correspondence games that have lasted over three years

The Road Ahead

This is the first post in what I'm calling my "Road to GM" series. It's an ambitious goal—perhaps unrealistic—but the journey itself has already taught me more about persistence, pattern recognition, and accepting failure than I ever expected.

The question isn't whether I'll reach Grandmaster level. The question is what I'll discover about myself along the way.

Next time: Breaking down my current strengths and weaknesses, and mapping out a realistic training plan for 2025.