A funny tournament story (True) and some ways to prepare for a tournament.

Well I played in a tournament 3 months ago; it was for ages 5-18. Before we started playing, the TD told us the tounament rules [touch move, strike take, en pasant ( I might of spelled that wrong sry if I did, i'm not a good speller.) ,ect]

So it was round 4 out of 7 matches and I had to vs this 8 year old (Looked around there.) So we played this game:

He started making all this noise and started crying allot. He was actually slamming the clock instead of hitting it. Then he started slamming his pieces when he moves and started whispering "Bad move." and "Pathetic".

I reported him once and the TD told him to stop and took away 3 min of his clock (The game was 45 min with 5 sec delay.) so he had about 7 min left in the middle of the game. So I  guess when he realized or something, he started sweating and huffing and puffing in my face and was kicking my legs under the table.

I reported him the 2nd time and the TD took away 5 min this time so he had about 2 min left and I had around 27 min left. I  eventually won thank god. But then after he lost, he slammed all of his pieces all over the place and ran out of the room. He got kicked out of the tournament for that.

Here are some of the things I do to prepare and get ready for a tournament.

1) Well of course go to sleep a bit earlier than usual.

2) Practice more than usual the week before.

3) What I do that most people dont is drink allot of water, for me it helps me relax and help me think. It also helps your mouth stay wet when the game is on the line :). (Gum is also a choice but dont chew with your mouth open or crack it.)

4) Stay calm dont get so worried. Its just a game.

5) If your going to tournaments that you've been to before (more than 4 times) review games you played in the tournaments before. Because if you play the same person that goes to that tournament all the time also, you would know his type of play and it will make it easier. Unless he switched his opening of course :P.

Well thats what I do. I know it seems allot but it works, trust me. Good luck in your tournaments and thanks for reading.