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Originally my column has been titled Preparing for international competition, so today I decided to be more to-the-point and cover one of the most important topics in this field planning ones tournament schedule.
Choosing where and when to play is typical of both amateurs and pros. Lets try to think over the process and discuss the main steps. I would like to point out right away that the tips offered below suit rational people (who are fond of making plans and time management) better than those who prefer spontaneity and light-mindedness. Anyway, they should be more or less useful for everyone.
1. Allocate your free time. Check with your planner or simply think about it (if you dont have one). Unless you are a professional player, most of your time is distributed between work (or studies), family, and other hobbies. Decide how much time you can afford to spend on chess (its also worth checking out my article on the optimal number of games per year in case you havent read it before). If your opportunities are in conflict with your wishes, you will have to reconsider your priorities. Some of you will forget about your chess ambitions, others will find a way to reorganize weekends or holidays, some might even think about changing his/her lifestyle!
2. Mind your goals. Chess is popular since the game brings joy to people in many ways. Tourism, the process of playing, dealing with interesting people, mastering the game, competing with others, earning money these are just a few factors that make chess attractive. After understanding what is important for you personally, it will be easier to make decisions. Start looking out for open tournaments in certain countries (tourism). Forget about planning and play whenever you want to (enjoying the game). Connect with your friends and meet at a pre-chosen event (communicating with interesting people). Plan your preparation in detail (mastering the game). Try to earn a title (competing with others). Estimate your financial needs (chess as a means of making money). And so on.
3. Choose the tournaments. Lets say you have allocated some time and decided what you want from those events. Now it makes perfect sense to search one of the online databases (e.g. Chess Events or ChessMix) and compile your actual tournament list. After that you can handle the organizational matters (start preparing, connect with the organizers and friends, purchase tickets, etc.).
4. Participating in tournaments and reviewing your plans. Sometimes our plans have to be revised either due to our fault (didnt apply for a vacation at the correct time) or someone elses (the organizers of the tournament have escaped with the sponsors money). To mitigate the effects, one should have second best choices, i.e. emergency options. If a tournament gets canceled, you will attend a different one. If your family affairs dont let you play, the next time you will firmly say no and travel to an open. In this respect its a good idea to discuss your plans with all the associated people: your boss, relatives, friends, organizers. This will minimize the chance of being sent to a conference at the wrong time, running into a scandal at home, missing a chance to meet the people you would have loved to see, getting turned down by organizers.
Lets take a look at this method in practice. I am a professional player, so for me the process is, in some way, easier. Sometimes I want to spend more time with my family, have certain health issues or simply get bored with chess. However, most of my calendar year is open for chess tournaments (item 1). Another feature is that I often have the luxury of choosing one of several attractive proposals that come to me, as opposed to searching for them myself. Otherwise, the process is identical to the one described above.
As I have already mentioned, it is essential to know the hierarchy of your chess values (item 2). Until recently, for me it went like this:
Financial reward
Prestigiousness of the event
Opportunity to increase my chess mastery by facing strong opponents
Atmosphere (venue, people, etc.)
After having reconsidered my life-style in October, I decided to stick with the following pyramid of values:
Opportunity to increase my chess mastery by facing strong opponents
Prestigiousness of the event
Financial reward
Atmosphere (venue, people, etc.)
Based on that, I can choose where to play (item 3):
November 2010 Russian SuperFinal (main criterion - prestigiousness)
December 2010 World Championship (main criterion - prestigiousness)
January 2011 Gibraltar Open (main criterion opportunity to improve in chess)
February-March 2011: eroflot Open or something similar (main criterion opportunity to improve in chess). Depending on my mood and wellbeing.
March-April 2011: European Championship (main criterion - prestigiousness)
I also have the other months of 2011 planned, but would like to abstain from publishing the info so that not to confuse the organizers (in some cases I will have to choose between two or three attractive offers item 4).
Hopefully, the recommendations provided above will help you plan your chess calendar and enjoy playing!
To conclude this article, let me share with you the annotations of one more game of mine from the recent European Club Cup:
After playing inaccurately in the opening, I got a worse position with White. The knight on e4 was restraining all of my pieces. Under these circumstances it was hard to come up with a decent plan, so I made a few weird moves. Luckily enough, Blacks play was far from perfect, so I found a chance to confuse matters, gain some advantage and even convert it into a win.
Vaisser and Khmiadashvili win World Senior Championships
Written by Administrator
Sunday, 07 November 2010
The World Senior Championship has been held in two groups: open (224 participants, 11 rounds) and women (21 participants, 9 rounds).
GM Anatoly Vaisser (France, 2507)
In the open section the rating-favorite GM Tseshkovsky has been leading up to a certain point, but finished out of the top ten.
GM Anatoly Vaisser got gold, while three more players have also scored 8.5/11.
WGM Tamara Khmiadashvili (Georgia, 2162)
The rating-favorite in the women's section, the legendary GM Nona Gaprindashvili, was very close to winning the event for the second year in a row, but the tie-breaks favored WGM Tamara Khmiadashvili, who celebrated victory in the World Women Senior Championship for the 4th time in her career! WIM Tatyana Fomina has also scored 7/9.
The rules are simple - send us your questions and see them featured in the weekly Q&A column!
Q1: Let say you are playing in a tournament and there are players there that use the
same opening, but the difference is that one player is much stronger than the other. Let's
say in that tournament you have a strong idea or novelty against the opening used
by both players. You have play to play the weaker player first, would you use that
idea or novelty against that weaker player or save it later for the stronger player? A1: Nowadays the openings are being explored so quickly that it doesn't make much sense to hold off certain novelties. Get your point today before someone else does it tomorrow. Also, there are less "crushers" as opposed to the pre-computer era where you could find a move that changes the evaluation of the position from lost to won. Chess engines have changed the way we treat chess.
Q2: Have you encountered John's Nunn's "Chess Puzzle Book"? For a mere mortal like
me, the problems are very hard, but for a GM like you,would that book not give you
trouble of finding the solutions? A2: I haven't read this book, but I am sure the problems there should be sophisticated since Dr. GM Nunn is the reigning world chess problem solving champion. I also love solving chess studies, and there is a certain correlation between playing strength and the ability to solve problems (the stronger the player, the faster he untackles the problems). However, the opposite is not true. Some of the top problem solvers in the world are below master level in practical chess.
Q3: At GM or master level, is it really necessary for them to always prepare a novelty
for a match? A3: It's very important to be able to get a position that you like and the opponent doesn't. Such matches as Kasparov-Kramnik and Anand-Kramnik have been decided by luring the opponent onto one's home turf, making him feel uncomfortable, disappointed and helpless. Therefore, it's not a matter of knowing some magic moves in certain positions (as the public tends to think), but comprehensive opening systems aimed at outplaying the opponent.
Q4: When I play white with my PC I play really very good against a 2300-2400 Elo. But
when I play black I feel that my level decreases from +2200, to 2000 (or a bit less).
Is it "normal"? Do you feel it too? What should I do? A4: This is not normal at all. Most people score better with White than with Black, but the gap is normally within maybe 100 points. It's hard to imagine someone playing at master level as White, and at expert level as Black (as in your case). Could it be that you are playing inferior openings against the computer over and over again and losing game after game? The first step you should take is carefully analyse your games against the computer and search for repeating patterns to avoid making the mistakes in the future. If you get a slightly better position with White and a slightly worse one with Black, you should score about equal.
Q5: What chess literature have you been using for preparation before? And what about now? A5: Some time ago I compiled a non-comprehensive list of chess books that have influenced me a lot. Nowadays the most common types of chess literature that I'm reading are: 1) books on specific types of positions (e.g. with hanging pawns) 2) tactics and endgame studies 3) books that authors ask me to review 4) chess magazines (New in Chess, 64 Review, etc.) 5) other good chess books. Nonetheless, nowadays one has to spend more time analysing positions with the computer than shuffling through books' pages.
Q6: My rating used to be about 2000. I haven't had a chance to play otb for a few years, but have had extensive correspondence experience. I will be soon playing in a tournament, so what goal should I set before myself? A6: Generally speaking, it's VERY hard to return to otb play after quitting it for a few years, especially if you have practiced correspondence chess at that period. My advice would be not to be too hard on yourself. It is not possible to set Herculean goals under such conditions. Just make sure you prepare well psychologically, physically and in the chess sense. Try to enjoy the game and see how it goes. After finishing the tournament and diagnozing your weaknesses (that you may not be aware of since you didn't have them back then), you can find out where you are at and proceed to goal-setting and creating a new training plan. Good luck at the tournament!
Q7: When playing against the World right now, do you rely on your positional understanding, or follow the advice of chess engines? A7: Do not underestimate the power of the human brain. I prefer playing my own moves unless they are quickly refuted by the engines. I take a look at the position and find some ideas/plans. Then I try to implement them on the board. Sometimes it runs into a tactical refutation (computers are good at that). If not, then I just play my move without caring what the "best line" provided by the silicon beast is. Also, this is much more entertaining than simply comparing what different engines at different depths are suggesting without thinking about it yourself or learning something new. After all, the World is playing me, not my laptop.
Magnus Carlsen, the 19-year old Norwegian chess prodigy who is ranked #1 on the live chess ratings and widely recognized as one of the main candidates to become the next World Chess Champion, has sent an official letter to FIDE stating that he will not participate in the Candidates Matches next year.
To: FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov & FIDE World Championship Committee.
Reference is made to the ongoing World Championship cycle.
The purpose of this letter is to inform you of my decision not to take part in the planned Candidate Matches between March and May 2011.
After careful consideration Ive reached the conclusion that the ongoing 20082012 cycle does not represent a system, sufficiently modern and fair, to provide the motivation I need to go through a lengthy process of preparations and matches and to perform at my best.
Reigning champion privileges, the long (five year) span of the cycle, changes made during the cycle resulting in a new format (Candidates) that no World Champion has had to go through since Kasparov, puzzling ranking criteria as well as the shallow ceaseless match-after-match concept are all less than satisfactory in my opinion.
By providing you with four months notice before the earliest start of the Candidates as well as in time before you have presented player contracts or detailed regulations, I rest assured that you will be able to find an appropriate replacement.
Although the purpose of this letter is not to influence you to make further changes to the ongoing cycle, I would like to take the opportunity to present a few ideas about future cycles in line with our input to FIDE during the December 27th 2008 phone-conference between FIDE leaders and a group of top-level players.
In my opinion privileges should in general be abolished and a future World Championship model should be based on a fair fight between the best players in the World, on equal terms. This should apply also to the winner of the previous World Championship, and especially so when there are several players at approximately the same level in the world elite. (Why should one player have one out of two tickets to the final to the detriment of all remaining players in the world? Imagine that the winner of the 2010 Football World Cup would be directly qualified to the 2014 World Cup final while all the rest of the teams would have to fight for the other spot.)
One possibility for future cycles would be to stage an 8-10 player World Championship tournament similar to the 2005 and 2007 events.
The proposal to abolish the privileges of the World Champion in the future is not in any way meant as criticism of, or an attack on, the reigning World Champion Viswanathan Anand, who is a worthy World Champion, a role model chess colleague and a highly esteemed opponent.
Rest assured that I am still motivated to play competitive chess. My current plan is to continue to participate in well-organised top-level tournaments and to try to maintain the no 1 spot on the rating list that I have successfully defended for most of 2010.
The annual Tal Memorial super tournament will be taking place in Moscow, Russia from November 4th to 15th. It's a round robin featuring 10 top grandmasters from all over the world:
1. Aronian, 2801, Armenia
2. Kramnik, 2791, Russia
3. Grischuk, 2771, Russia
4. Mamedyarov, 2763, Azerbaijan
5. Karyakin, 2760, Russia
6. Eljanov, 2742, Ukraine
7. Gelfand, 2741, Israel
8. Nakamura, 2741, USA
9. Shirov, 2735, Spain
10. Hao, 2727, China
Games start at 3 p.m. Msk time (9th of November is rest day).
Also, there are less "crushers" as opposed to the pre-computer era where you could find a move that changes the evaluation of the position from lost to won. Chess engines have changed the way we treat chess.
I prefer playing my own moves unless they are quickly refuted by the engines. I take a look at the position and find some ideas/plans. Then I try to implement them on the board. Sometimes it runs into a tactical refutation (computers are good at that). If not, then I just play my move without caring what the "best line" provided by the silicon beast is. Also, this is much more entertaining than simply comparing what different engines at different depths are suggesting without thinking about it yourself or learning something new. After all, the World is playing me, not my laptop. 
