So it pays to put your pieces on the squares badly in the hope of having an opponent this annoys.
Help with 1st tournamnet
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Lol..And pretend to adjust your hearing aid...now that's just not cricket is it Scott.
So I started hitting the tactics trainer hard.I've probably solved over 100 puzzles at the 13-1400 level so far. Ones under 1300 I get right most of the time.... They take me like 2-5 minutes though, but I figure that's OK since the games are 120/d5. Some I am struggling with.... I'm hoping that I may actually have a chance of beating someone at my tournament lol...or at least tying. I'd really like to see haw I would do with people who have been playing for a couple months like I have, but this won't happen....
Do you think I should continue hitting up the tactics, or should I spend more time playing live games? I am still struggling with the clock. Its really distracting for me and leads me towards blundering at times.
I am still not prepared for openings. I need to look at that some more I think. Thanks for the advice guys...
If I could make an accurate metaphor I'd try for this...Tactics Trainer allows you to learn how to manuever around tight corners and pass people in traffic at high speeds.
Chess Mentor, studying games, practicing against machines, etc...help you learn how to back the car out of the drive way and master driving a stick.
I think this because I do a lot of Tactics Trainer and hover around 12-1400 while not doing enough to learn positional play and developing my pieces correctly.
naturalproduct wrote:
Hi:
I found out recently my club is having a 6 week tournament starting in a week. I hadn't planned on playing so soon because I have only played about 4-5 OTB games so far. Most of my chess has been correspondence where I can usually figure out a position given enough time to think.
The good thing for me, being this is my first tournament ever, is that it is a 120min time control.
Do you remmeber your first tournament ever, and can you give any advice to me? At this point I plan to just practice tactics as much as I can until the tournament. I was told not to worry about specific openings, rather solid (general) positional chess openings, and to look at tactics. Maybe some basic endgames.
The French defence and e5 for black as a response to e4 were suggested to me to study. FOR White, I was told to just follow the basic principles of center control, development, castling..etc.
I feel like I am missing something I should do to prepare....
I really need some advice...
Yes, I remember my first "official" OTB tournament. I played it some weeks ago. For more information check my blog about it. ;)
However, it is very recommended to know most of your opponent. It will give you self-confidence. Some opening lines that you know are always a nice way of starting the tourney. I have never played longer game than 60 min & it was against my friend. I'm not rated, so I don't know much about it. I played just 11 blitz games. :)
I can't remember who said it, possibly NM Dan Heisman, but it goes something like this: the brain can only absorb a few new patterns in one go, so more than say 30 minutes of tactics training at a time won't be of much use.
If that's true then it sounds like you're doing too much tactics and should find more of a balance. If it isn't true then 8 hours still sounds like too much to me.
Scottrf wrote:
So it pays to put your pieces on the squares badly in the hope of having an opponent this annoys.
The move h3-and-a-half can be quite useful... it can be adjusted either forward or backward, as the case requires.
fissionfowl wrote:
I can't remember who said it, possibly NM Dan Heisman, but it goes something like this: the brain can only absorb a few new patterns in one go, so more than say 30 minutes of tactics training at a time won't be of much use.
If that's true then it sounds like you're doing too much tactics and should find more of a balance. If it isn't true then 8 hours still sounds like too much to me.
I think you may be right. I'm really improving my board sight with the tactics, and pattern recognition is becoming a bit easier as well. I think I should look at openings a bit at this point and maybe a few games.
In castling its best to touch the K first as castling is considered a King move. If you touch the rook first your opponent may insist that you move the rook (and not the king ) at which point the TD will probably get involved and he will have to make a decision . Some opponents are real sticklers for following ALL rules very strictly and some are not . I saw a game once where one player declared " adjust " during his turn to move , adjusted several of his pieces and then several of his opponents pieces at which point his opponent complained and summoned the arbiter. Do you know what he did wrong ?
Your not allowed to adjust your opponents pieces, only yours, right?
Right . You are only allowed to touch your opponents pieces when capturing . If he has pieces that need adjusting then you are supposed to ask him to adjust them, all while your clock is running ofcourse, not his .