also like the title say's can this be beneficial in a way (build mental toughness,encourage discipline for at home studies etc...) or is this string of almost victories just overall bad (surely bad for the confidence if it keeps happening).
is it a misfortune or fortune to never win a OTB tourney ??
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Me. I entered an under 1000 tournament a month after starting to play chess.
I lost 0/3.
After that, I entered another under 1000.
I lost 1/3, but only because someone overlooked a queen cap with my bishie.
My otb rating is about 100 I believe. Everyone must think I'm stupid =(
Do you mean win class sections? or the tournament outright?
I personally only play in FIDE rated tournaments, which really are only the big ones, so I have no chance of beating all the masters which compete in it.
either or
neither nor
It's really not all that easy to win your section of a tournament.
You really have to put together a string of several, often half a dozen or more, good games in a row. That's not always easy.
If you're not "sandbagging" then what this means is you're are playing against many players, often dozens and dozens or more, who are about equal to you, or better, in ability.
Assume you have a 50-50 chance to win each game. Flip a coin and see how often you flip six heads in a row. I can tell your right now approximately how often that will be. About 3% of the time. (One time every 32 flips.... 2^6)
And yes, I know lots of players who choose to play up. They would have a much better chance of winning something if they stayed in their section, but for many reasons, they choose to play in a higher and tougher section. Kudos to them when they do.
not really...
I think I've entered 56 OTB tourneys and I consider myself fortunate to win my section twice.
Once I won an Under 1600 section, when I was 1500 something and then a few years ago I won an Under 1800 section, when I was 1700 something.
I won my first major chess tournament (chicago class championships just last month (CCA associated), its good to break through, its a curse to not win one eventually.
I tied for second in class A at the US Open with 6/9, and at this past Chicago Open tied for 9th in U1900, but I've never really been close to winning my section at a major tournament.
Out of more than 100 people in a section at major tournaments, only one can win.
Aug 9, 2013
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#13
OP: GMs don´t consider 1600 people amateurs, when they talk about amateurs they are usually considering IMs and FMs.
socialista wrote:OP: GMs don´t consider 1600 people amateurs, when they talk about amateurs they are usually considering IMs and FMs.
im sure no one here is a GM so no need for this post :)
It surprises me that I have met a few very strong OTB amateurs (1600+) who have NEVER won a single tournament. So surprising that I almost always research them to see if its true and there are quite a few reasons for this.
For one some amateurs just love to play up a section and sorta live by this philosophy of tournament play to improve or just for the challenging fun of it. Some do enter their own section but enter it at Major tournaments (not just talkin US either) where their are players from other federations who are already expert level or higher playing in the same section and then their are those who just might have some real bad luck when it comes to tournament decisive games (drawing players they needed a win against/losing altogether in the final round/get sick and cant play a round at all!) Just curious is their any chess.com members who play OTB but never won a OTB tournament ?