What Does Tournament Prep Look Like for an Adult Improver?

Keeping up with a blog is harder than I thought... Oops. 

Life gets busy, but that's the joy of these blogs, is it gives both you, the reader, and myself snapshots into progress in all facets of life, and how thinking has changed. The biggest change in my life as of late is that I got engaged to the love of my life last week, and am looking forward to the future ahead.   Chess has some ebbs and flows in regards to motivation, time available, and other related factors, but it remains to be on my more "relaxing" hobbies pending the result

As we approach the end of May, I've decided to once again participate in a multi-day tournament, the Rising Stars Memorial Day Open, a 3-day, 6-round, 90+30 event here in Mesa, AZ. I've kept up for the most part with the weekly tournaments over at our friends, The Phoenix Chess Academy, so I hope that I'm in form for a more "true" classical tournament, but only time will tell. Particularly in the past few months, chess has been tough, particularly when ratings stagnate and you get the feeling that you're just 'spinning your wheels'. With this event coming up, and the blog idea from my buddy CJ, I thought I would give an insight into how I prepare for these larger tournaments. 

CONFIDENCE

I can't help but be a firm believer that confidence and momentum plays a major part in performance. Besides my OTB games, I try to play somewhat consistently online in rapid time controls to get more volume so I can work on either newer openings or time utilization, as well as playing consistently in the Lichess 4545 and Lonewolf leagues to get more classical exposure. In many of these games, I almost rely on having a few good results or a good game to reflect on so that I have a little more confidence going into these long games. Namely, this week I got the opportunity to play a game as Board 5 for my 4545 team, after losing a pretty brutal round 1. It's a game full of drama, where I was feeling worse out of the opening, managed to turn it around when my opponent relieved some pressure in the position, and then a tense moment where a draw was offered 2 ways, but I opted to play it out nearly 30 minutes down on the clock, and managed to squeeze out a win after 2.5 hours. You'll find my annotation below. 

OPENING PREPARATION

I've only played one of these long tournaments before, and having people blitz out learned theory in these LONG time controls was a tough pill to swallow. My opening knowledge admittedly is pretty poor, but it's been slowly improving. Rather than take the time to get into the weeds with certain lines, I'm trying to develop a more solid repertoire of openings that I can play into, as I don't quite think I'm at a level yet where I have lines learned to play for a win or to play for a draw. I can be a bit predictable, and I think a lot of the regular Phoenix area players already know what I'll likely play, but that's okay. At the end of the day, we still have to play the game of chess, and if I can keep it somewhat even out of the opening, there'll be chances later in the game.

TACTICS

Tactics. Tactics. Tactics. Such a crucial part of the game and a part of improvement that sometimes takes a back seat. I've really been making an effort this week to be playing with more puzzles, puzzle rush, and general visualization sequences to work on that tactical vision. I've been taking extra time with my online rapid games to see the tactics in positions, and when I miss them in game, I try to find them in the post-game analysis. I will never expect to find them all, but I think that more importantly, taking the time that is allotted during these 90+30 games will allow me to find more of these moves. I don't necessarily need to be tricky when I play, but those opportunities will be more sparse in longer time controls, so it'll be so important to capitalize. 

ENDGAME

Personally, I love endgames. I don't think I'm too great with them, but they are the one thing in chess that is completely solved at a certain point. The way that I view my endgame study, is that if I can get pieces traded down into a somewhat equal position, and I have better knowledge in the endgame, I can stick around until a mistake is made, and then pounce on the opportunity. In my online play in particular, I've had quite a few games this week where I was in a worse position, but being able to find tactical sequences in those endgames, or games where I've saved a draw from a lost position, will keep my tournament hopes afloat and hopefully help with my rating. I still have a long way to go with this study, but Silman's Endgame has been an excellent resource int he study and application of those concepts. 

REST

I'm not one of the kiddos who has all the energy for these multi-day tournaments anymore. I'm fortunate enough to be in a job where I was able to take a few days off around the tournament both before and after to rest up, do some chess study, and generally prepare the mind for the upcoming games. Even between these long games, I realized at the last tournament the importance of rest, and thus, I got a room near the tournament to where I can go nap or decompress after the morning game in preparation for the afternoon game. I think this aspect sometimes is underrated, and my performance when I'm feeling rested is always much higher. 

GOAL UPDATE:

• USCF Regular Rating of 1700 by 12/31/25 (Current: 1543)
  • I'm down from where I was unfortunately. I took a big hit just after my last blog post, and fell all the way from 1632 to 1510. It's been a grueling process to climb back up, but I'm starting to see the return of this rating. 
• 12 Blog Posts in 2025 (Current: 3)
  • Number 3. Yeah, I'm way behind here. But even writing this now, I'm having a great time, and think I'll be able to turn this around. 
• Sustained Chess.com Rapid rating of 1900 (Current: 1802)
  • I've crawled my way back up to the 1800s. It's always stressful to me for some reason after I hit a new "100" mark, but I'm working on reframing that mindset so it's just another game, and I expect the deviations a little more. 
• Achieve a Weight of 170 lbs (Current: 172.0 lbs)
  • Still making progress, albeit very slowly. I've been less mindful of what I'm eating, but I was biking to work consistently for about 2 months, although now it's getting a bit hot. Down another pound from the last update, so I think this is within reach this month or the next. 
• Gain 50 followers on Twitch.tv/TristanBrown17 with average of 5 viewers/stream (Current: 61 followers, 1.5 viewer average)
  • Heyyy. Reached half of the goal. I think my next step for this one is to get more comfortable with some self-promotion, and to establish a more consistent schedule so people can find the streams more easily.