which section to enter due to grade?

[Matthew Parsons]

Ok, so i would welcome any opinion on this.

My grade is 170 this season for standard play and 181 for rapid. I am falling exactly on the cut off point in most congresses for major/open. Some majors are below 171. some are below 170.

Bradford this weekend is 170 and below, so i can play in the major, but should i?

I read kasparov once where he wrote essentially that players should always in the section their grade puts them.

I wish to continue to improve as a player.... my grade history is 118, 122, 126, 132, 137, 141, 158, 170 (YCA/ECF to show progression over the last 8 years).

I'm in my twenties, and still think there is masses room for improvement, there are many areas of my game which i know to be weak.

So what do people think? What section would you play in in my place?

This is my first post, and i was unsure which section to post this in. - Mods please move if required.

[Rob Thompson]

Imho, you should play a mixture of opens and Majors. So if you've played mostly opens, play the major this time. If you've played mostly majors, play the open

[Matthew Parsons]

Ive only really played majors. I played the open at calderdale recently, was on 1.5 after 3 rds, but had to withdraw due to illness.

[Simon Brown]

If you want the cash (maybe) play the Major. If you want to improve, play the Open.

[John Upham]

The age old advice used to be to alternate between tournaments that you might expect to do well and those that will challenge you.

I think this is standard advice from many coaches I'm led to believe.

Some lowly rated players will always enter Opens and when they did not make 50% blame the result on the strength of the opposition.

[Matthew Parsons]

If you want the cash (maybe) play the Major. If you want to improve, play the Open.

Yeah my preference is to go for the money in the congresses like this where ill be the top seed, and then in the ones where i have to enter the open, go for the improvement.

Though im not saying that i still cant improve by playing in the majors, but obviously the playing the better player rule applies. I hope this will be for only one season, and that next year i wont have any choice in the matter, and will have to play in the opens.

[Alan Walton]

I agree with Simon

It all depends what your aims are

My view is choose certain majors where the monetary gains are more likely, otherwise predominantly enter opens to gain experience, you may lose grading points for a couple of years but the experience you gain during that means then you will win these majors and be a better player for it

[Richard Bates]

Being able to beat players weaker than yourself is a skill worth hanging on to. The problem with always playing (genuinely) stronger players is that you get into a mindset of thinking a draw is a good result. Winning games of chess is VERY difficult and when you get out of the habit it is difficult to quickly rediscover it.

[Matthew Parsons]

Guess what,

After all that i ended up getting a bloody bad cold which kept me in bed from about 9pm thursday to 11am saturday.

Ah well...

It was the fever - i'm not a wimp!