Chapter Six
Practical Tournament Strategy
A well-planne d tourn am ent chess chess strategy can can have an incredible impact on the result results s o f the tourn am ent chess chess playe player. r. Contem plating and d evelopin g a refined approach to playing chess chess tournam ents is critical critical to succ succes ess, s, as as yo u will surely surely fare bet ter than the casua casuall and uninfo rme d chess chess player that simply arriv arrives es for round one and focuses only on the moves. There are a variety of factors that contribute to chess chess tourn am ent succ succes ess; s; how ever , any mas ter will tell you th at prepa ration is one o f the most important important.. ‘Psycholo Psychologic gically ally,, y ou have to have confidence in y o ur se lf and and this confidence should be base based d on fa c t. ’ - Bobby - Bobby Fischer
The Importance of o f Off-the-Board Preparation It’s fantastic that man y chess chess player devote hours o f study per day to modern opening theory, tactics, common middlegame concepts, and endgame technique - but this this is only only polishing your on-the-board preparation. Wha t about all all the oth er ingred ients to succ succes ess: s: confide nce in yo ur ability to see the best line in a very com plicated position, or confidence in your ability to accurately convert a small small advan tage in the endga me , or simply simply understanding understanding your tournam ent standing, standing, and w hat risks risks are appr opr iate an d wh at risk risks s are just no t worth taking. Ches Chess s psychology is is a complicated problem because there are an infinite number o f possible possible answers answers,, and it is is difficult difficult to encoun ter a tangible scal scale e that will de fini tively tell tell you if one perspective is the m ost correct. correct. It It is is importan t to identify and evalu ate all all factors as objec tively as possible. possible. Chess ess psycho logy is the fo rc e behind every every move y o u make, make, and and it is essential to understand and appreciate its impor tance as you a ttemp t to improve. improve.
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Practical Tournament Strategy 7
believe m ost definitely that one must no t only grapple with the problems on
the board, one must also make every ef for t to com ba t the thoughts and will o f the opponent.’- Mikhail Tal
Risk Assessment during Tournaments Anyone wh o has ever played a com petitive sport will recall their favourite coach drilling the follow ing expression into th e back o f their brain: ‘Finish the Drill’. It doesn’t m atter i f you cam e out sw inging in the first 75 percent o f a chess tourn a men t - if you fizzle in the m ost critical last-rounds, you will fail. At 25 years old and with a 2767 FIDE rating (March 2013), Hikaru Nakam ura is the b est chess player the United States has had since Bobby Fischer. Nak amura is a legitim at e monster on the board, coming in at #8 in the w orld on the latest chess-rating u p date. H owever, even the greatest players make mistakes sometimes. At the 2011/12 R eggio Emilia Super-Tournam ent, Nakamu ra built a sizable 1.5 point lead over his nearest rival after seven often rounds. Nakamura continued to play as aggressively as possible and pr oceeded to lose all three rema ining games, finally finishin g in third place. This is a per fect e xa m ple o f a ba dly conc eiv ed chess tour nam en t strateg y. Tak ing a fe w draws afte r a ferocious start is not timid; it ’s practical. And on the flip side o f things, if yo u ar e chasing a tournam ent leader - you have to hit the gas and bust ou t all o f the gam bits and tricks you k now to make a comeback. As you get closer to the end o f a tournam ent, understanding you r overall position and apply ing th e necessary changes to your gam e is critical to success.
Maximize Your Level of Focus during Play Achieving the op timal state o f mind during a chess gam e is a very difficult thing to do . It is very easy to becom e distracted by the littlest things, to have you r m en tal en ergy d iverted by some com pletely irrelevant and trivial detail. The best chess players in the wo rld are able to fin d the exact balance betw een using their mental and emo tional en ergy wh ile remaining com pletely calm and relaxed. Understand ing the im portance o f achieving an aggressive state o f mind while staying 100 percent calm and objective will certainly help you r chess ga m e grow, en abling you to brush o ff the distractions and put all o f your m ental capacity to work.
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Chess Psychology: The Will to Win! Identify Problems and Enforce Solutions Lack o f focus is the m ost com mon obstacle to a chess play er’s impro vemen t, de tracting and devaluing the time you have spent working hard to study and pre pare fo r tournaments by allowing anxiety and nerves to affect your gam e. It is ab solutely impera tive to keep a firm grip on you r emotion s during a chess tourna ment, being careful not to a llow them to n egative ly spill over into a game. Many players are simply unable to play their best chess witho ut em otiona l en ergy and inspiration, but the best players are able to keep this energ y in check and allow only its positive effects on their game, such as more energy in critical moments and an ex tra stubborn defence. Garry Kasparov exem plifies the ability to harness the benefits o f turning em o tional energ y into a pow erful mo tivational tool, enabling him to push harder and harder for the win in difficult positions. Kasparov’s games show an enormous amo unt o f mental energy, and it was his fierce desire to win that push ed him to win and defe nd w ith lon gev ity the title o f world cham pion. Every chess player must individually find his/her perfect m ental balance, that fine line betw een in vesting and pushing you rself emotion ally while still playing an objectively sound game with machine-like analysis. After every chess tournament, you should ana lyse yo ur gam es to persistently find ways to im prove - and your psychological conduct should be exam ined under this auto-critical microscope with the same level o f scrutiny as the m oves themselves.
Get Your Mind Right! The gr ea test deterren t to pla yin g yo ur best chess is all ow in g you rs elf to be dis tracted. Wheth er yo u ’re playing an opening yo u ’ve played a thousand times b e fore, or attemp ting to launch a decisive attack out o f a com plicated position maintaining the maximum amount of concentration possible is going to permit you to play you r best. This to pic is especia lly rele vant t o the am ateu r an d in term e diat e chess player, regardless o f age or expe rience, beca use this is the single larg est lim itatio n to success in the gam e. And the wor st part is - mo st chess players have no idea that they are afflicte d with this terrible disease o f bein g continually distracted. In the age o f mind-num bing hyper-stimulation, it’s easy to understand why m any chess players have a hard time dedicating 100 percent o f their mental capacity to the boa rd in fro nt o f them. But this quality is exactly w ha t separates the g reat players from the goo d - the ability to ign ore all possible distractions and wrap their entire m ind around the imm ediate problem on the chess board. ‘Only throug h fo cu s can yo u do world-class things, no m atte r how capable yo u are.’ - Bill Gates
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Practical Tournament Strategy Without Focus and Execution, Potential Means Nothing Mothers love t o make excuses fo r problems o r failures o f their children: ‘Oh you know he just has so much poten tial. He just m ade this mistake because h e’ s not trying .’ And this type o f excuse is terrib le because it is doin g noth ing to correct this maladaptive behaviou r - it’s actually encou raging the kid to make m ore m is takes because his mom continues to rem ind him ho w incredibly potentially tal ent ed he is. Let’s cut the nonsense and get to the facts. Failure to m axim ize your focus and use every ounce o f potential you hav e equates to achieving sub-optimal results. Basically, if yo u can ’t control you rself to clear your mind and achieve op timal fo cus on the task at hand - your ‘pot en tial’ is com pletely irrelevant. The real world is focu se d on results, no t pote ntial ou tcom es i fyo u had jus t tried a little bit ha rder - and the same maxim applies to chess!
Nothing Good Comes Easy Successful men and women nearly always accredit hard work, dedication, and preparation as the vehicles o f their success - howev er, these things are simply im possible to achieve if you can’t comman d your mind to operate on an optimal lev el. Rising to the occasion in one chess gam e and trying y ou r harde st is a goo d thing, but this is only one small step in the ladd er to success. Real victory com es to those who deserve it, who deman d absolute focus from their mind at all times o f work - extracting every ounce out o f their ‘poten tial’ on a daily basis. It is not enough to merely put your mind to work when it ’s convenient - if you really want to succeed in chess (and life?), you have t o push your self by constantly expan ding your lim its o f work. The be st th ing s in life are not g iven f re ely - they are usually foug ht for with every grain o f mental energy and resolve. ‘A pessimist sees the d ifficulty in every opp ortu nity; an op tim ist sees the o pp or tun ity in every difficulty.’ - Sir Winston Churchill
The Out-Gangster Effect For one reason or another, a mysterious aura of excellen ce seems to ex ist around all advan ced chess players. Beginne r and inte rm edia te chess players regar d the advanced player with an incredible degree of respect, often resulting in an overes timation o f abilities. I’m sure the follow ing scene will be quite familiar to any chess player wh o’ s atten ded a handful o f serious tournaments: It’s a huge Swiss tourna men t and in the early rounds ayoun g/rising 1700 player is facin g o ff ag ainst the local FIDE Master (FM). The yo un g player has pre
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Chess Psychology: The Will to Win! pared well for his experienced opponent, emerging from the opening with a strong initiative and a dangerous attack. The FM is able to push back the attack and the position becomes roughly equal, although both players are low on time after the comp licated opening and midd legame - but there is still a lot o f chess left to play. A crow d gathers around the board and even though the position is complet ely equal, everyone is whispering how the FM has got the kid on the ropes and how ‘H e’s going t o close this ou t justl ike always.’ The FM senses a critical mo men t and plays more d eter min ed than ever. Looking at the body langua ge o f the tw o players, yo u can tell that the experien ced FM feels very comfortable in this situation and is thriving on the nervous energy/anxiety o f the youn g 1700. Soon enough, the nerves ge t to him and the kid starts making passive/defensive mo ves. The FM becomes even m ore determ ined to win, and just like that - the kid makes a fe w small errors that lead to sudden defeat. Now why does this always seem to happen?
Strong Chess Psychology Will Win You Games! Whe n the gam e is equal and dynam ically balanced as yo u approach the later stages, the mental fib re o f the chess player will be tested. Your object ive playing strength becomes less imp ortan t and your psy chological strength becom es the guiding factor to success. Understanding the im portance o f aggressive chess psy chology can take your gam e to th e next level, although yo u should be careful not to let previous defeats lead to con tinued feeling s o f anxiety or nervousness in such situations. Instead, yo u should fee d o ff o f these painful past experiences and learn from them.
How to Be on the Givin g End of the Out-Gan gster Spectrum Personally, I hate losin g mo re than just ab out anythin g else. This happ ens to b e a great m otivational tool... to win! Learning from previous defeats should not in clude perpetu ating the same m aladaptive behaviour. Giving due respect to a strong opp onen t is one thing, but overestim ating him and constantly thinking in the back of your head that yo u know ho w bad he’s going to beat you in the end is quite another. Playing 75 percent o f a game well does not mean anything - the most im portant phase is the fourth quarter. So the next tim e yo u’re entering the final phase of an impo rtan t gam e and the stress is building to a maxim um - this is the exact m om ent when you need to buckle down and become extremely stubborn in y o u r mission to win this ga m e at ail costs, no m atte r who the op po ne nt is.
Chess Tournament Preparation Chess tourn am ent preparation, w hether at the junior, local or wo rld level is al
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Practical Tournament Strategy ways a nerve-wrecking activity. S oy ou ’ve been studying and playing a lot o f prac tice games. You regist er fo r the n ext local tourna men t, take it easy on Friday night, sleep well, and even arrive 20 minutes ea rly at the to urna men t hall to make sure yo u’ re c om fo rtab le and every thing is set. Then the tim e comes to sit down and play, and you literally fall apart at the b oard and g et d estroyed in 13 moves. Where did it all go w ron g?
Calm Your Nerves! Chess, ab ove all, is a gam e o f nerves. You can study all yo u w ant, bu t if you ca n’t control you rself at the board - you w on ’t have a chance. Learning to be calm and collected is vital fo r chess tou rna m ent pr eparatio n. Make sure you take a deep breath and chill out. Som etimes I like to close my eyes at the beg innin g o f a game, even if the clock is ticking, and com pletely clear my m ind and remin d m yself that I am there to do on e thing - win. So, maintain comp osure at all times. Focus on tak ing you r time during chess tournaments. Many beginn er players will impulsively grab pieces and m ake critical m oves w itho ut taking a ny real tim e to think. This is a terrible idea! In a normal tournamen t, you usually have about 90 minutes fo r the entire game. You don’t get bonus points for having ex tra time on the clock at the end o f the game, so make sure you take all the time need ed to m ake the best possible moves.
Critical Moments There is no such thing as mo ves th at do n’ t m at ter in chess - every m ov e is im po r tant. Nevertheless, some m oves do mean more than others. Finely tuning you r sense o f critical situations is a require me nt to excel. When yo u reach this imp or tant point, take you r time! CleaT your mind, for ge t everything that happ ened b e fore , and identify the best course of action. When practicing fo r the tournament, see if yo u can ‘fe el ’ when these m omen ts hit.
Forgetting Past Blunders This really ap plies not on ly to chess to ur na men t prepa rat ion bu t to y ou r chess preparation, your chess psychology - essentially you r chess gam e as a whole! Don’t keep harping on a blunder; if it happened, then it’s done. After you make a move, instantly fo rg et about the previous positions and focus exclusively on the presen t and the fut ure po ssible positions. This is ext rem ely im porta nt. If you made a mistake on the move before, or five moves before - it does not m atter an ymore, so just m ov e on. Play yo ur be st to win the ga m e with what yo u have r igh t in front o f you.
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Chess Psychology: The Will to Win!
Play the Board, Not the Opponent! It is ver y easy to pay too much atten tion to the pairings, and specifically your o p pon en t’s rating. Over-e mpha sizing your opp on en t’s rating is one o f the most com mon mistakes a beginn er player can make, potentia lly resulting in a lack o f confidence, fee lings o f anxiety, hopelessness, and gener ally bad play. It’s okay to check the pairings and try to get ah ea d start by trying to prepare against an op ponent i f yo u ’ve played him or her be fore and are fam iliar with his or her style, bu ty ou never want to get too caugh t up in pre-game preparation - as it is very easy for your op ponen t to diverge from you r last-minute preparation. Getting anxious about playing a much higher-rated opp one nt is neve r going to help your ga me, so in many o f my chess classes, I reco mm end a ve ry simple solu tion to my students: when you look at the pairings, only check what board yo u ’re playing on and com pletely igno re your opp on en t’s rating. This tempo rary solution will also help you avoid another dangerous com mon beginn er pitfall - underesti mating your opponent.
Don’t Gamble, Play the Best Move! From my brie f experienc e in casinos, I kno w enough to sta y awa y from gamb ling because th e house always wins! The same principle applies in chess, in that a player who gambles by playing very loose moves against a lower-rated opponent, hoping his opp one nt do esn’t find the flaws, is sure to g et busted badly in the long run. It’s easy to look at the pairings and get nervous about playing against a hig he r rated opponent, but it can be even easier to beco me over-confident abou t playing a lower-rated o ppone nt - and even m ore dangerous. Playing sub-optimal moves against lowe r-rated opposition opens the door to embarrassing defeats and should not be taken lightly. The best chess players in the history o f the g am e have ma intain ed the ability to play the highest level o f chess against all opponents, never pe rmittin g e ven the slightest chance of losing to an infe rior rival.
In answer to the question: W ho isy ou r opp on en t tonight? : 'T onig ht I am playing against the Black pieces.’ - Akiba Rubinstein
Maintaining Equilibrium Garry Kasparov and Bobby Fischer are tw o o f the best chess players ever. Kas paro v’s main strength was in the opening, whe re his incredibly dee p level of prepara tion in the sharpest lines of his tim e en abled him to obtain dan gerous ini tiatives ver y early in the ga me. Bobby Fischer’s open ing preparation wa s also fa n tastic, perm itting him to ch allenge the Soviet regim e in the middle o f the 20th
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Practical Tournament Strategy o f a gam e certainly depends on the tim e control, but fo r your standard chess gam e (usually around 60 or 90 minutes) - each side has plenty o f tim e to dissect and punish the mistakes of an opp on en t’s hasty open ing moves. You w ill play y o u r be st chess by fi n d in g the ideal b alance betwee n tr us tin g y ou r instincts with fa irly quick evaluations and moves, and developing y o u r in tuit ion to det ect critica l situation s where yo u need to use mo re tim e on the clock to success- fu lly navig ate y o u r way thro ugh a co mplic ated position.
How to Find Your Correct Speed It’s not easy findin g your unique, optim al speed fo r moves in chess - b ut the best place to look for improv eme nts in speed of play can be fou nd in your previous games. One great way o f evaluating yo ur move speed is to write down how much tim e y ou have left on the clock righ t next to each mov e as yo u take nota tion during a gam e. You should be analysing you r games after each tourna men t anyway, but if you think you mig ht no t be mo ving at the best speed during each game , then this exercise can defin itely help yo u pin poin t yo ur prob lem. In my chess classes, this easy trick enables me to identify i f ther e is a problem with my student’s move speed - and if so, exactly whe re it occurs. It’s easy to see if som eone is m ovin g w ay too fast in the op ening, but som etimes this problem goes a little deep er than just blitzing o ut the firs t 10-15 moves. I frequ ently encou nter students who co mp letely lose track o f time in com pli cated positions - resulting in debilitating tim e trouble later in the gam e. By check ing the student’s notation m atched up with the time rem aining a fte r each move, I’m usually able to de term ine w here th ese types o f problems occur. If a student is taking w ay too much time in complicated positions, I have often foun d that this is because he or she is suffering fro m a lack o f confidence, resulting in the inability to take decisive action. Constantly analysing pas t game s and twe aking y o u r in dividu al chess style with an honest eye fo r scrutiny will lead to a guaranteed ju m p in improveme nt.
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Practical Tournament Strategy century with un parallele d success. Fischer also hap pen ed to pla y the en dg am e with computer-like precision, capable o f making even the m ost experienc ed grand ma ster’s defence look flimsy and disorganized. Incredibly deep and sharp opening preparation is great. Near-perfect precision in the end gam e is definitely a go od thin g as well. But wh at really distinguished these tw o w orld chess champions from their contemporaries was their ability to recover from surprises on the chess board - taking everyth ing in stride and pa tiently regroup ing to regain their mental balance and continue to play at an op timal level. 'Chess is a un ique c og nitiv e nexus, a place where art and science co m e tog eth er in the human mind and are refined and improve d by experience.’ -Garry Kasparov It’s not a bad idea to take a fe w pointers from Fischer and Kasparov. If you take a goo d look at their careers, you will undou btedly notice that they alm ost never lost two games in a row. Now I’m pr etty sure tha t’s not a coincidence. In fact, they were much mo re likely to co meba ck fro m a loss with a win in their next gam e. This is a great ex am ple o f ho w a strong chess psycho log y and mental fib re can take your gam e to the next level. So just how can you start pointing you r gam e in the right direction?
Baby Steps The m ost basic elem en t o f mental balan ce is to fo cus on the position im m ed iate ly in fro n t o f you. You must train your self to ignore all external facto rs such as the tourn am ent standing, wh ether you dre w or lost a game in the previous round that you should hav e w on, etc. The only thing that matt ers is the ne xt mov e that you need to make. You also don ’t wan t to let high-pressure situations throw you o ff yo ur normal ga m e and style o f play. M ake sure you stand up in thes e tens e m o ments and stick to the openings and types o f positions yo u kn ow best - play to yo ur strengths. So the nex t tim e the r oad gets a lit tle rocky an d it starts beco m ing difficult to think straight, make yourself step away, calm down, and focus on the position in front o f you an d the next m ove you n eed to make. Clear your head and igno re all distractions, because a balan ced ment al equilibr ium is sure to guar an tee optim al results.
Don’t Ge t So Emotional! It is very natural that th e mo re en ergy you put into a chess game, the m ore you b e come emo tionally invested in the outcomes o f your efforts. This can cloud your
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Chess Psychology: The Will to Win! ju dg m en t and lead to second-best decisions, which is exactly why yo u should be fully awa re o f the dang ers o f emotio nal thinking in chess. It is absolutely critical to play you r best chess in eve ry single ga me that you play, and to do that you will need to be thinking like a computer, calculating and strategizing with pure objectivity. The m or e cog nizan t you are o f the ne ga tive impacts o f em ot iona l and irra tional thinkin g in chess, the eas ier it will be to av oid this m alad apt ive behaviour. I’ve noticed that beginners are especially afflicted by this problem in the op ening stages o f the game, playing their m ost excited (and usually worst) chess shortly after shaking hands with their oppone nt and beg innin g the gam e. 'Emotiona l instability can be one o f the facto rs giving rise to a fai lur e by chess players in i m port an t duels. Under the influen ce o f surging e mot ions (and no t neces sarily negative ones) we sometimes lose con cen tratio n and stop objectively eva luat ing the events tha t are taking place on the boa rd.’ - IM Mark Dvoretsky
Control Your Emotions from the First Move The op en ing is an essential part o f chess, as the structure and pressure yo u are able to achieve will form the framework fo r the rest o f the g ame. The amateur chess player is very prone to mo ving to o fast in the openin g and dow nrig ht g am bling, hopin g th at a rapidly achieved time ad vanta ge in the ope ning will carry over into enduring tim e pressure in the midd legam e and endgame. While time pressure is a very real and dang erous e lem en t in chess, it should certain ly not be overestimated. Gambling with your emotions by impulsively moving too fast with the inten tion o f putting pressure on yo ur op pon ent via the clock is a very long-shot bet, and the percentag es are definite ly not in your favour. So the nex t time you feel y our self becom ing too emotionally attached in a gam e and your judgm ent becomes affected - take some time to slow down, walk away, and clear your head to make sure you are making move s from a com pletely objective perspective.
Clock Management Every chess player has their ow n unique individua l style, and it is very imp orta nt to understand the positive aspects that are conducive to success and the negative characteristics that contribute to failure. One o f the m ost comm on beg inn er chess mistakes is clock mismanagement, specifically playing too fast in the opening in an attem pt to ‘ save tim e’ for later in the game. Sacrificing the qu ality o f your moves because you want t o achieve a big ad vanta ge on the clock in the openin g is simply ineffe ctive. O f course, how much tim e you consum e throu gho ut the course
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