English Chess Forum

Hi.
There is an open tournament 2-3 week from now. How can I best prepare for it, so that I don't suffer rating losses again (am currently FIDE-rated 1860?

Soheil Hooshdaran wrote:
Hi,
There is an open tournament 2-3 week from now. How can I best prepare for it, so that I don't suffer rating losses again.

I wish I knew. I'd try it myself.

Maybe IMs can give hint here.
Others should take part too

I find playing a lot of blitz and rapid chess (with strong opponents) a few days before the start of the tournament sharpens me up.

I don’t attempt to cram in extra study hours before the start of any tournament. For the moment I am happy with my opening preparation, and all my limited study time (slotted in between holding down a full time job and keeping a relationship going) gets devoted to the endgame.

It seems to be working for me for the moment, it’s rare I don’t get at least a 75% score in every congress I play, and usually get some placing and share of prize money (even win the odd one) - that said I’m not attempting Opens, and results were less impressive for a 6 month period when my grading went too high and I had to bottom seed Majors.

Mind you I’m not saying this situation is ideal, if I won the lottery I would immediately abandon work to study chess full time and hire a Chess coach

This particular IM has no tips for tournament preparation, apart from "don't expect to avoid losing rating points if you are playing one while suffering from severe depression".

For me the best preparation is:

A good night's sleep the night before.
Two biros in my top pocket.
Arriving with plenty of time to park, go to the loo, find my place, fill out the rubric on the score sheet, chat happily with neighbouring boards (and my opponent if present and willing).

[I'm not good enough to study my opponent's games - not because it wouldn't help, but because my opponent rarely has many published games for me to study. And often I don't know who it will be until it's too late].

The art of chess can be summed up simply, the world your head is inside of, and the world that is inside your head.

PeterTurland wrote:The art of chess can be summed up simply, the world your head is inside of, and the world that is inside your head.

I'm sure there's a universe in which that constitutes helpful advice. I remain sceptical that this universe is it.

"For me the best preparation is:

A good night's sleep the night before.
Two biros in my top pocket.
Arriving with plenty of time to park, go to the loo, find my place, fill out the rubric on the score sheet, chat happily with neighbouring boards (and my opponent if present and willing)."

Yes. It's not clear if you have time to prepare for each opponent. If so, look them up on the database, to see their general style of play, and maybe try to steer them into (or out of) a specific opening variation.

I do try to prepare for league opponents because our club keeps its own database of local league games in which club members have been involved. At weekend congresses, which is my other activity, it is rare to know ones opponent long in advance. As well as that, most opponents will have few, if any, games recorded on a database. At a grade of 177 that perhaps doesn't apply to you, but it is a limitation for me at 146. Of course, this is all a little different from Soheil's position entering a one game a day tournament.

Often, of course, the preparation of specific opening lines evaporates fairly early on - so I still think my views expressed above have merit!

I was agreeing with you!

Having just played at Guernsey, (draw published usually 16 hours before the round) I had the chance to look up opponents' games before the round and it helped. It worked best at Gausdal some years ago, where I had two successive wins against higher-rated opposition, as I noticed that they repeatedly played dubious openings, which their previous opponents hadn't noticed. Later on, it didn't help as the opposing IM smelt a rat and played something entirely different!

it's more difficult for weekend events of course.

The only sane time to prepare for people for weekenders is if you're strong enough to be hoping/expecting to do well in the open and can predict you'll likely play some of the 200 grades at some point. They do tend to publish entries in advance nowadays. Otherwise its madness

You mostly have to be >177 to get many games onto databases. Regular Div3 4NCL players I suppose but that's quite a small sample size, so will only work for people acting as fixed targets (not ideal!).

There are definitely still players up to 190/200 who have what are objectively rather worrying repitoires. Mostly just habits they got into in the pre computer era I think, and there hasn't been enough exposure to the effects of it in evening leagues/weekenders to shake them out of it.

Really all you can sanely try and do is 'simply' a matter of making sure you turn up happy, focused, with plenty of energy etc Basically impossible to ensure of course, but you can try. Maybe at least resolve precisely why you're playing the tournament in advance.

MartinCarpenter wrote: You mostly have to be >177 to get many games onto databases. Regular Div3 4NCL players I suppose but that's quite a small sample size, so will only work for people acting as fixed targets (not ideal!).

Where the Congress has a website containing all or most of the games, you can build your own collection by downloading them. Admittedly that's usually mostly the Open and most useful to research players who regularly take part in Congresses. Some FIDE rated events would load PGN files to the FIDE rating site, so that's another source.

Where your opponent is likely to play an unusual line, it can be nice to have advance warning. That way you can choose before the game either to rely on your generic preparation, take on his pet variation or dodge it completely.

IM Jack Rudd wrote:

PeterTurland wrote:The art of chess can be summed up simply, the world your head is inside of, and the world that is inside your head.

I'm sure there's a universe in which that constitutes helpful advice. I remain sceptical that this universe is it.

"Secrets of (Im)practical Chess Preperation" by Peter Turland could be a smash hit title..

PeterTurland wrote:The art of chess can be summed up simply, the world your head is inside of, and the world that is inside your head.

Well I understand you, Peter.
Don't always manage it and when I do I still often lose!