Originally posted by masscat
How many games would you have to play to get to 2200? I really have no idea. I do know most masters don't want to piddle around playing people they can beat blindfolded. They prefer to play their own kind.
Well there is a downside from starting over.
My first opponent in my first OTB, who was also unrated, beat me so bad my ego still hasn't fully recovered (and that was 20 years ago). He had been much further along in another country and was just starting out in the USCF.
If you play equally rated opponents each game (which is a little unrealistically hard to manage exactly that, but just for the sake of discussion), you would advance 16 points for each win. To go from 1200 to 2200 pretending like you're not provisional to start with would take 62 games.
You could play many games at once, but regardless of the time, at least it shouldn't require much intellectual effort to go from 1200 to say 1700 if you are truly a 2200 player.
If you enter open tournaments you are paired with random opponents regardless of your rating. If you advance to the second and third rounds, you should be playing people that can give you a challenge.