Tips on Preparing for a tournament

Different approaches work for different players when it comes to preparing for the tournament. In this article, I will share some of the tips that have helped me prepare well for a tournament. I wish somebody had shared these ideas with me earlier, but life doesn’t work that way. Right? I hope you get to apply some of the concepts in your own routine of tournament preparation!

There was a time when certain parts of chess mob had to tackle with lack of information. We are living in the age of TMI (Too much information), where the man who filters and prioritizes, enjoys an advantage over others. So, I will focus on getting things right before the event.

Let’s assume that your tournament starts in seven days and you are wondering what to do.

#1. Register your past lessons
It is important to go over your recent games, revise the lessons and make a list of mistakes. Use prompt questions to attain clarity. For example:

Mistakes:
What was the nature of my mistakes? Was there a pattern in them?
Did the mistakes occur in the opening? Did the mistakes happen during the time trouble?
Did I repeat any of the past mistakes?

Openings:
Did I go wrong in any of the openings?
Did my openings influence the direct result?
Did I understand the nuances of the openings that I employed in the previous event?

Thinking:
Did I overlook opponent’s key ideas and resources? (Estimate/Compare the intensity to see if your awareness has improved)
On what kind of moves did I spend most of the time?
What kind of decisions were the toughest to make?

Others:
Did my thoughts stop me from making the best moves?
Was I nervous during the event?

You can add your own questions to the list

Knowing yourself can aid you well to make better decisions in the future. This process stamps a seal of clarity for the mind to go ahead and play freely. Uncertainty and vagueness may derail the mind, but clarity could help in focusing on what is necessary.

#2. Take Long Walks
I could have said that you need to invest time on physical preparation, but that might seem too much for some players depending on the time they have. The best and the easiest way is to walk in the morning or in the evening. During these walks, you can either listen to your thoughts or guide yourself. Walking in the garden or a fixed track is preferred so that you don’t get carried away by your thoughts and miss the signal. If you like jogging, you could do that too.

#3. Orient your chess antenna
Pick up simple puzzles from tactic servers or puzzle books, magazines and solve them without the board. After 30 minutes of solving, switch to board and solve positions from any tactical exercise book.
Some of the sites that I use are: www.chesstempo.com and http://tactics.chessbase.com

A friend of mine suggested chess.com’s tactical trainer. You could try that too! The basic idea is to exercise your reflex and be ready to sense any danger.

Don’t beat yourself on not solving the exercises accurately. Instead, just practice being more alert. If you judge yourself based on how you fare in practice, you may not be motivated enough to continue working in the long run. So, develop patience, accept mistakes and keep training.
Practice solving every day even if it is just for a few minutes.

#4. Make a plan
Going without a plan is a plan too. But, if you are ready to take control of things that you can – then you might want to think about the openings you wish to play in the tournament. You should be asking the following questions to yourself:

1. What should be my response to 1.e4?
2. What should be my response to 1.d4?
3. What should be my response to 1.c4?/Reti/Torre/Trompowsky?

What should be my primary opening as white?

Here is an example:
Suppose, I want to go with 1…e6 against e4 and Queens Gambit against 1.d4 and 1.c4 e6 against the English – I will have to revise the basic opening lines /variations and have the list of the opening fresh in the mind. Have at least one response ready against each of the questions. This keeps the nervousness associated with the openings at bay.

Once you have a clear plan, go through some of the latest TOP games on the openings. You could obtain games by going to Mark Crowther’s amazing website www.theweekinchess.com where you get a new collection of games every week.

#5. Revise theoretical endings
You can’t predict if you will have a rook ending in the event, but you can do what is possible – Revise simple rook endings before the event to not miss a draw or a win. 100 Endgames you must know by Jesus De l Villa or Dvoretsky’s Endgame manual contain good material on the subject.

#6. Employ the tournament routine
It is very important to take a look at the schedule and make a guess of the possible schedule of the tournament considering the time control and the weather of the tournament place. If the tournament has double rounds, practice the routine at home. For example, if the tournament game starts at 9, wake up at 6.30 or 7. Have breakfast and be ready by 8.30 am. If the next round starts at 3 pm, it means you have only 20 minutes for a power nap. Schedule a power nap at around 1.50 pm or 2 pm and start freshening up after 20 minutes. This simple concept of employing a routine equips your mind to serve you better!

#7. Pack TWO days in advance
If you are leaving on 23^rd, pack on 21^st. Make sure you arrange everything and pack TWO days in advance. This saves a lot of last minute hassles and also gives you a complete ONE day rest. It is such a cool way to treat yourself to some rest.