How are chess players promoted from one rank to another?

Answer 1

I believe you must be referring to how a player becomes for example, a Candidate Master, FIDE Master, International Master or Grandmaster.

To become a titled player in this way, one must obtain a number of favourable tournament results, typically a score above 66%, and where the tournament contains a pre-determined minimum number of titled players, and has a specific minimum average rating. These results are known as norms, and historically three had to be achieved within a certain span, usually two or three years.

Once these are achieved, the player must have had his rating climb above a certain standard (respectively for the above; 2200, 2300, 2400 and 2500) and is then conferred the title at a FIDE Congress, held every year. Typically tournaments are organised with norm chances in mind for a country's budding young stars.

It can though take many years to go from one rank to the next, as every 100 points higher from about 2000 represents an exponential progression in skill, not a geometric progression. Most strong players will struggle without having started very young or without having had intense training, to get beyond 2200.