How To Prepare For A Chess Tournament

Tournament Training: How do yous ready for a tournament? Every chess actor hopes to show their best in every game, but more than often it happens they perform below their abilities. Why does that happen? In that location could be many reasons, only near likely they did non exercise their best earlier the game started. Confucius said: "Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such training, there is certain to be a failure."

Every professional chess player has their ain way of getting ready for an event. In this article, we will break down the most important things that you should consider to perform amend in your next tournament. Apart from discussing chess and not-chess practices used by professional person players, we volition also discuss what is essential to know for those who are planning to play in their first tournament.

How to be in expert shape during the tournament?

First, allow'south acknowledge there is no clear answer to this question. In that location are too many things that affect the process of decision-making and the way your brain functions. Many top players say they can never tell if they are in a good shape before the game starts. It usually takes a few starting time moves and calculated lines for them to answer that question. You lot can be in a fighting mood and feel dandy, but nonetheless, struggle to summate variations or make atypically bad decisions when it comes to playing.

Still, certain things tin increase the probability of you coming at your best. Outset of all, allow's talk over the concrete shape.

Tournament Preparation: You should sleep well.

In i of his books, Norwegian grandmaster Simen Agdestein wrote about his best educatee: "Magnus normally needs 10-11 hours of sleep to be in acme shape." Magnus Carlsen himself confirmed the importance of good slumber earlier the games: he said during the tournaments he sleeps more usual.

Before entering the tournament, check the playing schedule. Many grandmasters are used to getting up late and therefore, pass up to play in events with early morning rounds. Try to adapt your slumber schedule to the tournament's requirements in advance. This fashion you will avoid having issues with that.

Some other of import affair that strongly affects your well-beingness and your brain is nutrition. Bad food can make you feel downwards and lead to fatigue during the game. Moreover, information technology can negatively affect your slumber. You should eat healthy during the tournament, simply figure out what nutrient is good for you in advance.

Different tournaments have unlike schedules. In some tournaments, you volition play one classical game every twenty-four hour period, whereas the other tournaments can go with two games a twenty-four hour period. In the latter example, information technology is piece of cake to get tired, because 1 game can last for 3-4 hours. Such tournaments are more suitable for those who are in good physical shape. The importance of physical shape for chess players was recently shown in the Globe Championship lucifer 2021. The epic sixth game lasted for virtually viii hours and drained the world title challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi both physically and mentally. He didn't manage to recover after such a tough game and lost the match. Chess may non seem like that, but it actually tests your endurance.

Chess preparation.

Regarding the chess preparation for tournaments specifically, there are three most important things: solving tactics, opening preparation, and playing training games.

Tournament Training: Solve tactics.

In that location are different kinds of puzzles to solve, and the players take dissimilar preferences near what to practise before the games. Some players solve easy tactics on popular websites; others prefer to challenge themselves with hard endgame studies. The general communication would be to solve tactics that are rather easy for yous but nonetheless, make your brain work. Tactical vision is like a sword that needs to be sharpened before the battle.

Opening preparation.

Players usually spend most of their time: If you lot already have an opening repertoire, you should refresh the lines in your retentiveness earlier playing the tournament. If it is going to be a round-robin event, you lot will probably know the names of your opponents beforehand. It allows you to await up their games in the database and see what openings they play. Yous can prepare against these players specifically. But keep in mind they volition set up confronting your regular lines too!

In open up tournaments, the situation is different. You will get to know whom you play but before the next round. You can and should prepare once the pairings are published, but that is a lot of work to do in such a short time span. It is better if you already have your openings prepared beforehand. Then when you set for a tournament, y'all should have some idea of what openings you volition play. The depth of your opening grooming depends on your level. The stronger you are, the more than you should know.

At the club level, every bit Black, y'all should be ready at least for 1.e4 and 1.d4. The other moves are also likely to happen at any level, only these two are the most frequent. As White, ready for the main replies against your beginning move. If yous practice this piece of work before the tournament, you will have more time to fix the arising issues and afterwards, save your energy during the event.

Information technology is also a good idea to adjust your openings for time command. In blitz or rapid, you tin play different openings. Sometimes your opponents will not accept plenty fourth dimension to figure out what to do; or it can exist something simple, and then yous would not demand to spend much time on the opening phase.

Tournament Preparation: Grooming games.

I of the best ways to prepare and go far a good shape is to play training games. This way you will non but get to do your openings merely see what areas you should work on likewise. Clarify such games, and you lot will be able to get rid of some mistakes before the tournament.

Many people also castor up on their endgame cognition. It is skilful to remember how to checkmate with a knight and bishop or make a draw in some rook endings. Although let's admit this is something mostly but professional chess players exercise.

Be ready for different kinds of situations.

Do you know how to claim a draw after a threefold repetition? What about the 50 moves dominion? How exercise you react if your opponent offers you a describe at every move or suddenly starts talking? What practise you do if the lights plough off in the playing hall? Many situations similar this are possible during tournament games, and it is going to exist a stressful experience. This is why it will be really helpful to have an idea of how to react when something like this happens.

Moreover, yous should know how to play if you or your opponent gets into time trouble. Set up some plans for how to cope with losses or go on calm later beautiful wins. What strategy will you employ against higher or lower-rated opponents? You should address these questions in accelerate.

If this is going to be your first chess tournament, talk to people who accept already played in the tournaments to get to know more than about their feel. This will make you experience more confident. You can discover these people in your local chess lodge or on unlike chess platforms online.

Y'all would as well demand to know about the rules of the tournament. For example, in the FIDE-rated tournaments, the players aren't allowed to have any electronic devices in the playing area. This rule is used to avoid cheating, but many people only forget to exit their phones or watches at home and fall victim to this rule. Some tournaments provide the players with storage places for electronic devices. If your telephone makes whatsoever sounds during the game, the arbiters will have to stop the game and count it as a loss for y'all. So exist enlightened of this rule!

Tournament Preparation: Determination

Many people accept learned how to play chess more or less recently and always been playing online only. In this case, it seems to exist necessary to get a set of chess pieces before the tournament and practice playing on them. The perfect scenario if y'all get exactly the same set every bit it is going to be at the tournament. You can ready different puzzles on your physical board and try to solve them similar that. At first, it can be challenging to call up on a real board, just yous will get used to it and enjoy playing offline. Also, don't exist afraid to enter your first tournament; even the world champions had to start at some point.

This all may seem similar a lot of work to do, only you can choose what you lot think is more than important for you and focus on that only. Benjamin Franklin said: "Past failing to ready, you are preparing to fail." Remember this when you fix for your next tournament, and still, don't forget to simply enjoy the game. Skilful luck!

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Source: https://thechessworld.com/articles/training-techniques/tournament-preparation-complete-guide/

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