I see a lot of "I'm going to get to GM someday" blogs out there, and some of them are quite entertaining and interesting. Most of them are quite delusional.

Does anyone know of any examples of a player setting up a site like that and succeeding?

Does anyone know of anyone who aimed for a lower title that way and made it? Came closest?

Has *anyone* ever made a high-level chess title as part of a personal challenge or prop bet, without already being very close?

I have been following one blog for a few years in which the person started around 1800 and has been chronicling his attempts to make it to expert class. He's up to about 1911, still quite a ways to go, but it's a fun read.

I bet Allen Cunningham will do it, and he has his own thread right in this forum! (sorry, not mocking you, it's just that the excitement felt appropriate)

Could you post links to the most delusional (for laughs) and the sanest (for learning)?

http://roadtograndmaster.com/
This guy is very nice and I enjoy his blog, but I think GM is way out of his reach.

http://gettingto2000.blogspot.com/
This guy is probably going to make it to expert, but the fact that it's taking him so long shows how tough the road from Class A to expert really is.

I don't want to dog out anyone whose blog I don't like. They might be a poster here or something

I'd forgotten about Cunningham's prop bet. But his isn't chasing a title, per se. It's that he can beat a 2100 (expert class but untitled) player, right?

The prop bet question was inspired because I'm too lazy to bookmark this site, so I just google "two plus two chess forum" everytime I want to come here instead of doing the work I'm paid to do, which is often.

I noticed further down the search hit list was an old thread from the old-style forum that a few regs might remember: Durrr playing Curtains at knight odds and rook odds. It was a fun read, and many of the comments reminded me how little clue casual online players have about the strength of the various higher ratings of OTB players.

I glanced at that guy's blog and admire his ambition, but I find it somewhat amusing that someone could think they could be among the best in the world at an endeavor such as chess with only 10 hours of study per week.

Yes, his bet is if he can beat Howard Lederer, who used to be that rating. At least that's the bet for now. Let's see where it goes after they play that game.

I thought this was gonna be a thread for people themselves trying to get to a certain ranking.


I'm trying to get from Class D > Class A myself, but am not racing.

I'm racing from Class E to Class F. I expect to get there next tournament.

LOL

Anyone interested in propping on this? I literally started playing two weeks ago but want some extra motivation to improve.

Open to hearing some ideas on possible props.