A serious training

Hi all

I wish to enrol to my first "serious" tournament in March 2009. Clock will be 15 0 and I'll be facing high rated and titled players.

I would like to take on a serious and methodical training and I would like you to give me some hints or advice on how to optimise my effort.

I am well rounded in openings and solid on endgame, but I have some problems with middlegame.

I have about 4 hours per day to devote to my training.

How do you suggest to split them?

Should I train everyday for opening, middlegame, endgame and gameplay or should I devote, for example, monday to openings, tuesday to endgame, etc.

Shoud I make a schedule and comply with it or I better ... ehm ... trust my instinct (that tends to bring me directly to the pub)?

How much time, in proportion, should I study theoretically and how much time should I just play and analyse my game? Half and half or should one aspect prevail?

Can anyone suggest me some good training methods?

I use Chessmaster as "sparring partner" software for games and for endgame training, I train for middlegame with chess.com "Tactics Trainer" and Chess Tactics Server, I use "Chess Position Trainer" for opening reperotire analisis and study, I use crafty for game analisis.

My chess club organises twice a week a blitz tournament (5 0). I go there once per week for games OTB.

Ofcourse I enjoy also playing here and on FICS for games with some human being ... silly earthlings ...

Please, share with me how you train for tournaments.

Thanks in advance.

get a LOT of sleep. wear headphone with nice music. bring hand sanitizer. eat vegetables. play like you have nothing to lose.

Thank you, Erik

Really thoughtful advice (especially about sleeping), though I don't understand why would I need hand sanitiser.

I'd say I'll rather need some sackets for they will probably trash me badly

Really, why would I need hand sanitiser?

Any hint for the training before march?

bring it. you'll thank me after ;)

Well... anonimoitaliano: by the way you describe things, you're doing exactly what's gotta be done. If you keep doing that, you'll be sharp enough to face anybody. I would add, that you look back on games you've played here (games you lost preferably) & see where you went wrong & what you should've been done...

eheheheh, ok I'll do it, but not knowing the reason gives me the creeps.

Thank you, Vagamundo. I do really need some encouragement.

I already analise my lost games and also those I won (Kasparov advice, to be trusted blindly).

Prepare with the usual game positions that give you trouble. I can't really give you sage chess advice because I'm not a great player (but I do know enough about it to recommend hand sanitizer). However, I am an EXPERT in no stress out under pressure in front of or with people: Here's what I've done in that department: Walk out on to a stage in front of 7000 people, all of whom are staring at you, and look the closest person to the stage straight in the eye and ask them how they're doing. I have gotten to a point where I don't see people any more. I feed off of the energy but ultimately, I achieve a oneness with the music. You need to let everything around you melt away and connect with the board. Don't worry about who your playing (what they look like, the serious look on their face, people milling around) because it simply comes down to moves and no person is perfect. Play the game for the love of the game. I will offer this bit of chess advice from my overbearing Russian Chess Coach (who yook me on for because of my crummy chess playing - he's determined to improve me): See the entire board. See it's continuity but see how each move is determined not by a section, but by the entire board itself. Make all of here proud. I'll expect a report back (drop me a note so I know how you did.

     Oh, don't visualize people in their underwear. That old routine can have nightmarish consequences.

Thank you, Hugh.

I am a musician as well and, even though you gave me a very interesting advice that I will work out for myself, I have no problem with public performances.

Before posting I wanted to know about how to organise my training through the weekdays.

Now that I posted I still wish to know it and I also wish to know why the $£%[]@# I'd need hand sanitiser. Should I write opening lines on it and give it a sneaky glance when I'm stuck with some offbeat variation, as we used to do at school?

Chess tournaments can be dirty places, and if you'll be playing chess all day, your hands get sweaty, your opponents hands get sweaty, you're touching pieces that other people have touched, etc.  So, especially if it's a multi-day tournament, it's important to reduce the chance of catching some kind of illness.  No point in getting sick the next day because you weren't able to wash your hands. That's what the sanitizer is for. 

As for training, my advice is to work on the weakest part of your game the most.  If it's the middlegame, work on the middlegame the most.

anonimoitaliano

The hand sanitizer (funny the word processing on this server does not recognize that this word is spelled correctly) is probably for opponent's with clammy or sweaty hands that touch the pieces. I'm guessing it never hurts to probably wash your hands between rounds so that you don't catch anything from opponent's with poor hygiene, which I hope you don't run into.

You sound like you have a firm grip on openings and endgames. As long as you have the basics down, you shouldn't lose games based on that. The trick is getting to a basic endgame position you know you can win. In order to do that, you have to study TACTICS TACTICS TACTICS! You'll open fine, you're endgame play will be pretty much automatic, but all of that training will do you a shred of good if you drop pieces during the middle game.

Find yourself some good tactical software or a good chess puzzle book and practice like 25-50 problems/day. If you go to a point where your brain starts to hurt a little, then you're on the right track (which for me was about 25-50 problems/day). It's not as much fun as playing games or reading up on your favorite opening, but if you slog through the puzzles, your hard work will definitely produce results.

You need to be able to see 1-2 move combos with near 100% accuracy, and 3-4 move combos very consistently. If you can execute these moves and defend against them, you're game and ratings will greatly improve. In a cluttered middle game board, when you can see that after your opponent's last move that you can win a Rook for a Knight in 3 moves, you'll be well on your way to an endgame that you can clean up very easily :)

1. Relax, play for fun!

2. Never play against  computers! You might argue that Chessmaster has those personalities, yet their play is far from a human.

3. Take a good book and stick to it.

Also, it's good to play some good games against the computer, preferably with an adjustable rating to match your level of play (within 200 points of your own play strength). And then have the computer analyze your games, and see where you made mistakes (namely where you lost material in the middle game). From there you can make a mental note to avoid those mistakes in future games.

@oracleman

Thank you for the good advice about where to focus my effort and for answering (at last!) about those hand sanitisers

@brandonQDSH

sanitizer = US english

sanitiser = UK english

I've been learning the latter, therefore I might spell funny sometimes

they are both correct, though

Thank you very much for the practical advice. I'll definitely include your suggestions in my daily "workout".

@costelus

software are good because they don't forgive you any slight mistake, especially tactical ones. Whatever inaccurate move you play, they laser into it, they take a firm grip on it and beat the cr***p out of you. I believe this is a good way to spot your weaknesses.

Thanks for sharing your opinion.

@brandon

this is exactly what I do, but I always play with the strongest player. I don't want the software to introduce randomness on its game: for the "human factor" I prefer the real humans, mostly here

I also analyse (analyze ) the games played against humans.

Play like you play against me. :P