THOUGHTS OF A CHESS ADDICT

Most children I know love to sign up and enter every tournament they can participate in, but the results they obtain do not always measure up to their enthusiasm. Sometimes we need to understand what is meant by " LESS IS MORE ". To put it simply, why play 5 tournaments and end up getting 50% score ? Why not prepare and play 2 good tournaments and end up top 5 placing? Even grandmasters do not go past 60 games A YEAR. They spent the rest of the year PREPARING . So how does one PREPARE?  Rather than reproduce the same text, why not read it for yourself here However, I must qualify some of Botvinnik's comments - they are meant for top players, not club players.   " I study games played by my rivals during the forthcoming competition "    You can only do that if you are playing in a round-robin tournament, where everyone meets everyone. This approach is not practicable in a Swiss system tournament, where your opponents vary. But then, if you are observant enou...

School's out pretty soon, so it's time to revisit the tournaments that will be in place for November and December. There's 25minute rapid chess and longer time controls of 2 hrs per game or more, plenty to choose from. I am broadcasting mainly those tournaments which are not organised by the SCF. For SCF tournaments, please goto  the SCF   for all the Upcoming Events. TOA PAYOH WEST CC  NOVEMBER 20 Round 1 starts 930am. There are 3 sections, A1 Junior Under 13 yrs, A2 Junior Under 10yrs, and Open (no age limit). Cash prizes and trophies awarded for Sections A1 and Open, trophies only for A2.  Lunch will be provided for Junior Sections A1 and A2 only . The entry form can be downloaded here   CAIRNHILL CHESS FESTIVAL 2011 DECEMBER 3-4 There are again 3 Sections, Open (No age limit), Major (16 yrs and under) and Minor ( 12 yrs and under). The Open and Major Sections are played in 45 minutes per side, thus over 2 days while the Minor is a one-day tournament played ...

The tournament has 2 sections, the Open for those 1601 and above and the Novice Section for those rated 1600 and under. Shi Hao and Mitchell took part, with Shi Hao ending on 3.5 and Mitchell on 4.5. He was placed 23rd in the field of 96 players, beating Foo Kai En in the last round who's rated 1392. He should get about 30 rating pts from this tournament. What matters to me is not so much just the results but tbe valuable lessons one learns during the course of the seven games. When Mitchell started off his first game, he lost it in about 20 minutes. What he was not aware of is the time management of his game which needs a little adjustment. He was working out 1 variation which he saw and did not try to see other moves which could be better. After explaining to him that the purpose of spending time was to first SELECT the candidate moves, evaluate the resultant position of EACH candidate move and then picking the best of the lot. Hence the need to take one's time to do this, es...

Based on SCF October Rating list, most of my students have made improvements in their ratings. 3 have created their accounts in the SCF Rating List. Good work boys and girls!! My target is for all students to increase their ratings by 30 points for each half year. That is achievable should they work hard in their performance for the remaining tournaments to be held in the year.