Does Studies interferes with Chess?
Or is it the other way around? Does chess interferes with studies ? 
The above is the rating graph of a participant taking part in the current GACC tournament. She is WIM Qianyun Gong, presumably the only participant from China. She hit a peak of 2374 before nose diving to around ELO 2200. She attained her highest ELO rating at the age of 20 so I am speculating the down trend was due to university studies? 
It’s been said chess complements studies. I agree with this but only at a non-competitive level. Chess develops the person’s mental faculties such skill in logical thinking and concentration. Of course there are a host of other benefits found from countless studies. Just try Googling it!.
For competitive chess, however, finding the right balance between work, studies and/or chess is a difficult thing, Despite what has been said in the comment section, I don’t believe there are many chess players have achieved a good harmonious balance between any combination of 2 out 3 of these elements.
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Comments
If you take chess as your only work to earn a living, any reasonably intelligent person can easily become an IM. It was once said that one should become an IM within 3 years and a GM by 5 years (from what starting base, I don’t know) and many young people have done that. Only in this part of the world where emphasis on studies take precedence, do we find so few achieving success.
Parental involvement is also an important ingredient, consider Carlsen, the Polgar sisters, Kamsky, etc who are all at the pinnacle of world chess.
Yes. But parental involvement of top players like Carlsen, Polgar sisters and Kamsky comes at a high price.
Didn’t Carlsen father quit his job, sold the house and moved the whole family cross country so that Carlsen can play in top level tournaments. The Polgar sisters never went to regular school but was home schooled with chess as the main focus of their studies. Kamsky father put Kamsky on a strict regiment of 8 hours a day study and physical exercise when he was young.
Exceptionally tremendous sacrifices and commitment! And not something that can be emulated easily.
It’s okay Guest_3390, and thank you for your concern. Andrew is right to assume that studies have affected my progress. I love Chess but I am from China so I have to concentrate on my studies and get a better life for my family. I hope and pray that I will pick up on my chess where I left off.
Note from GilaChess: The above post was NOT from WIM Qianyun Gong. Please do not impersonate someone else. Be yourself.
Of course there have to be sacrifices much, much beyond just accompanying the child to play and fetching him to tournaments.
Locally, we have the Sidek senior, and the fathers of Nicole David and Ong Beng Hee as well as others. But the most important is the ability of the child himself and his commitment to succeed. These 3 elements can combine to make the child a candidate for success. Beyond that , who knows?
@ WIM Qianyun Gong:
Thanks for clearing up that point for us, WIM Qianyun Gong.
We wish you a bright future in Chess and also your studies 
.
It’s refreshing to be proven wrong as I always thought that most chess players from China would put chess ahead of studies.
@ Malaysian:
So more or less we have seen the ingredients for chess success and what it takes to achieve it. Let’s hope we can see a MALAYSIAN GM within a few years?
[...] asked WIM Gong whether it was really her that wrote the comment on the blog on studies interfering with chess and she told me it wasn’t [...]
:mrgreen:
:-o
When in college or university, not the burning interest of chess had wayned out, in fact the interest is very well alive and awakened. Only that time doesnt let us to pursue our beloved hobby. Be it time to study chess as extensively as it used to be in secondary years, or even to take part in tournaments.
It is hard to devote to chess when you have to devote to studies/works first, and it is also hard to devote to studies alone without at the same time making your chess suffers. It is a sad reality, since both are very complex activities that require almost total motivation