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The game’s object is to checkmate the opponent’s king, whereby the king is under immediate attack (in “check”), and there is no way for it to escape. There are also several ways a game can end in a draw. Organized chess arose in the 19th century.

Chess has been shown to raise student’s overall IQ scores. A Venezuelan study involving 4,000 second-grade students found a significant increase in their IQ scores after only 4.5 months of systematically studying chess.

Depends on the title. While in the professional community, only GM/WGM and IM/WIM are considered “real” titles. There are also semi-professional ones like FM/WFM and amateur ones – CM/WCM. The top two titles are rather hard to achieve and require many years of persistent work, while the lower ones can be obtained relatively quickly.

– People under 2000 have a lot to learn about chess, and that should be done by playing classical systems, not relying on outsmarting the opponent by playing a rare gambit. So, if you wish to improve, you had better either abandon gambits completely or play only the most reliable ones (e.g., Queen’s gambit, the Benko, Marshall gambit, etc.). There are dozens of them, but you can easily google the info on any opening and find out whether it’s considered to be sound or not. Don’t play for traps! On the other hand, if you have no intention of improving your game or results, you can play anything you like, even if it leaves you in a lost position after ten moves.

Diagnose your main weaknesses and fix them. Sometimes it’s about dealing with health issues. Sometimes you have to find the motivation to perform well. If you are tired of chess, you may want to rest for a few days and feel the desire to play again. A few training games or even lots of blitz may be handy when rusty (after not playing for a few months/years). And so on.

– It’s hard to define “average.” Also, this leads us to a Guinness-book type of record, something not ordinary. People usually hire coaches not because they wouldn’t reach 2000 or 3000 otherwise, but to speed up the process. It’s like asking if one can get a decent education at home without university. The answer is probably yes.