Ps. Sorry for the bad formatting. The post was written on my phone which apparently does this automatically.
Casual tournament next month, looking to apply the 20/80 rule.
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Focus on basic opening principles and avoiding traps out of the opening, basic tactics, and common strategies in the three phases of the game. If all the players are under 1200 level, most games will be decided by blundered pieces. if you don't make blunders and find basic tactics like forks and attacking pinned pieces you should be fine. I would recommend playing live slow games and work on keeping your pieces safe and double checking moves before you make them to get in the habit of considering whether your candidate moves hang any pieces or give up obvious tactics. You should be fine with this.
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Wow that is some great advice all around. Thanks a bunch, this will definetely help.
Chess is a performance game. New knowledge helps you get better, but only after you spend some games incorporating it into your play. With only a month I would focus very little on new knowledge and try to increase performance. Between two nearly equal players the winner will be the one who works harder at the board and makes fewer mistakes. I suggest you mainly play long games (or games with length as close as possible to your tournament conditions) and solve tactical puzzles.
That said, opening principals and general middlegame tips are good to remember.
that 20 percent that gives 80 percent to me is looking at all the checks, captures and threats that your opponent can do. I'd say go a few play deep in each line (unless you feel you should go farther) and you will be in a good spot to beat many causal players.
Also do not worry about drawing the game, the chances of that happening are about 3%. In even endgame positions dont throw the game and you will win.
Play 30 minute games on here and practice considering checks captures and threats every move. It is harder then it seems to be disiplined about this. praticing the skill of mental disipline will give you 80% of your results.
shell_knight wrote:
Chess is a performance game. New knowledge helps you get better, but only after you spend some games incorporating it into your play. With only a month I would focus very little on new knowledge and try to increase performance. Between two nearly equal players the winner will be the one who works harder at the board and makes fewer mistakes. I suggest you mainly play long games (or games with length as close as possible to your tournament conditions) and solve tactical puzzles.
That said, opening principals and general middlegame tips are good to remember.
this is accurate advice
Next month my social circle has decided to hold a casual chess tournament which i'm really looking forward too. Most of us are real casual players that play a game maybe once a week. So i feel it's safe to say most of us aren't very good. The thing is, I am really set on winning this thing, or at least giving it my very best shot. Most of you have heard about the 20/80 rule that dictates that 80 of the result comes from 20% of the effort. Since I have a month to practice I am looking to sort of apply this rule when practicing, which I will be doing for 1-2 hours per day. The 20/80 rule is figuratively speaking ofcourse. I realize that only studying openings (say 20% of a game) and excluding all else will not leave me much change of winning. I also realize that there is no amount of 20% of chess suvjects that will make me 80% better. However I do suspect that there are some things more effective to focus on to get good fast (remember: in a casual setting) then other things. What i know right now are some very basic safe openings. The very basics like recognizing (the possibility) for skewers, pins, forks and uncovered attacks. The very basics of positional play like lone pawns, B's vs K's adventages/ disadventages, etc. Does anyone have any thoughts or tips about what these "20%" aspects might be? Much appreciated.