CHESS TOURNAMENT PREPARATION – 4 THINGS YOU MUST KNOW

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Chess tournament preparation, whether at the junior, local or world level is always a nerve wrecking activity. So you’ve been studying and playing a lot of practice games. You register for the next local tournament, take it easy on Friday night, sleep well, and even arrive 20 minutes early at the tournament hall to make sure you´re comfortable and everything is set. The time comes to sit down and play, and you literally fall apart at the board and get destroyed in 13 moves. Where did it all go wrong?
CALM YOUR NERVES!
Chess, above all, is a game of nerves. You can study all you want, but if you can’t control yourself at the board – you´re screwed. Learning to be calm & collected is vital for chess tournament preparation. Make sure you take a deep breath and chill out. Sometimes I like to close my eyes at the beginning of a game, even if the clock is ticking, and completely clear my mind and remind myself that I am there to do one thing – Win). So, maintain composure at all times. Take Your Time & Practice taking your time during chess tournament. I’ll admit , I have struggled with this my entire career. For some reason, I always want to move immediately like I’m playing a blitz game (especially in the opening). This is worse , it is incredibly stupid. In your normal tournament, you have about 90 minutes for the whole game. you don’t get bonus points for having extra time on the clock at the end of the game, so make sure you take all the time needed.
CRITICAL MOMENTS
Every move is important in a chess game, there is no such thing as moves that don’t matter. Nevertheless, some moves are more important than others. Finely tuning your sense of critical situations, when the battle has reached its peak, is a requirement to excel. When you reach this important point, take your time! (am I writing this for myself or for you guys?) Clear your mind, forget everything that happened before, and identify the best course of action. When practicing for the chess tournament see if you can “feel” when these moments hit.
FORGETTING PAST BLUNDERS
This really applies not only to chess tournament preparation but to everything. Don’t keep harping on a blunder, if it happened, it happened. After you make a move, instantly forget about the previous positions and focus exclusively on the present and the future possible positions. This is extremely important. If you made a mistake the move before, or 5 moves before, it doesn’t matter, move on. Play your best to win the game with what you have right in front of you.

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