Playing against tough opponents is not only interesting, but also useful in terms of improving one's chess. So, recently I decided to participate in an IM-norm event in Moscow held my GM Igor Glek at the RGUFKSiT university. The field has been finalized during the proceedings of the tournament, but I knew in advance that there will be 3-4 IMs, a few FMs, a WGM and some other quite experienced players. Taking into account the fact that I have played only 48 FIDE-rated games in my life before, I had just a few chances to face opponents of such level. Anyway, I have been studying a lot and performing at a 2200+ level in the last two competitions, so there was nothing to be afraid of.

I had three main goals for the tournament:

1)      Gain experience of playing in events of such caliber

2)      Pinpoint my chess weaknesses and try to dispose of them

3)      Increase my rating by 30-40 points

The schedule was free, so one could take vacation days and play at any time. This is very convenient, especially given that no problems occurred. Opponents showed up on time, no one tried to avoid playing, so everything went quite smoothly. I also took a few vacation days (to meet Natalia from France, etc.). The competition has been tough: only a few short draws, but no game-dropping, as far as I know. The great atmosphere has been ensured by the organizers - GM Igor Glek and IA Evgeny Linovitsky. Story-telling, giving advice, offering some tea - they have been very nice and supportive. Igor also helped everyone in sorting out issues wish schedule and provided us with daily updates by e-mail (the standings, pairings, etc.). 

The university itself is quite lovely: lots of signed equipment of famous sportsmen with autographs, pictures, cups. A great dining room with quite modest prices (too bad I didn't visit it during the first few rounds). The guards, naturally, haven't been too friendly, but what can one expect from them...
 

As it can be traced from the table, this tournament has become a serious trial for me and an epic fail. Last time I performed so terribly was in 2001 when I entered a strong open being only a young B-class player and scored 0.5 out of 9. Nonetheless, I believe that, just like last time, this is an indicator of getting to a new level in chess. Before a serious increase in mastery there is often a fall. A few more conclusions: 

1)      Playing in such events is an excellent opportunity to motivate oneself to take a walk every day (to get to the venue)

2)      Incredible heat affects the mind a lot, sometimes you make inexplicable decisions.

3)      Good physical shape and nutrition are critical. Many of the mistakes I made happened at hours 4-5 of the game when I was tired and hungry. Ô

4)      At amateur level (below GM) the opening is important, but not as much as people often tend to think. During the last few months I have been studying some variations till move 20-40, but here most people deviated on as early as move 1-5. Also, we don't have the technique to convert a +/- position in 90% of the games. Sometimes you get an advantage, and just a move later screw it by making a positional mistake. 

5)      Player's class is important, i.e. playing on a stable level. Consistency is essential: making average moves is better than sometimes playing like a genious, sometimes like a noob.

Chess Components:

Opening: A-. In most of the games I had a healthy advantage in the opening, even as Black. No one posed any serious problems before me or found flaws in my preparation.

Middlegame: C. Even in familiar positions I often chose the wrong plan, started doing strange things. I should play more games in "my" openings, gain some experience.

Endgame: F. Alas, I seldom have a chance to play an endgame since most of the fights end up with someone being mated or up material. Anyhow, I lost all the endgames in this event (including better ones or dead drawn, e.g. rook and 3 pawns vs rook and 3 pawns on the same side). Study, study, study.

Tactics: C+. Normally my tactical vision is at a decent IM's level, but here I made uncommon mistakes. Blundered some ideas of my opponents, missed my own chances. In the last round I allowed my opponent to trap my queen. No comments.

Strategy: C. My evaluation of the positions was pretty lame. Here and there I started attacking viciously (thinking that I have an advantage) for no reason, or relying on traps and sacrificing pieces to make the game more complicated (considering my position to be strategically hopeless, while it was quite defendable). 

Calculation: C+. One of my chess nicknames is "calculator" for the mastery in quickly seeing variations. This time it hasn't been the case: I kept missing some lines or tried to talk myself into opting for a continuation where I couldn't really see anything positive.

Time management:  B. Before the last few rounds everything went well. I always had plenty of time on the clock, played in a natural way and didn't get into time trouble (unlike my opponents). Then, as I started losing confidence and began over-checking my judgements, the situation became somewhat worse.

To sum it all up, I liked everything at this tournament, excluding my result!

To be continued (the next episode will feature chess problems from the IM-norm event's games!)

	1. Written by This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it on 17:37 24 èþëÿ 2010 ã.
	In your calculation evaluation you said “I kept missing some lines or tried to talk myself into opting for a continuation where I couldn't really see anything positive.”    This is the exact issue I need to work on too and is the primary reason for my interest in chess; because of the great mirror chess makes for seeing if there is this tendency to become overly biased towards a chess plan since in the next move our opponent will point it out to us by making a game changing move that is now so obvious we wonder why we missed it before. I see this as a very serious reasoning flaw, not because winning a chess game is very important to me, but because I assume this is a behavior pattern that is holding me back in life. In chess this bias can cause us to lose the game, but at least in chess we know we lost the game and in hindsight can reason out the bias exists and work it out; but in life this exact same bias can cause us to miss out on opportunities, whether they be original new training techniques to advance our artistic skills, business deals or running a government, but in life we wouldn’t know we missed these opportunities. Obviously resolving this tendency to missing out on opportunities because of a mental bias is as absolutely crucial to being a successful chess player as it is to be a world-class physicist, but for some reason I haven’t seen any GM chess blog focused on resolving this important make or break issue. Is this a big secret they are keeping to themselves?

	2. Written by Èâàí Áðþõàíîâ on 08:17 25 èþëÿ 2010 ã.
	Â ïîèñêàõ.. Ïåòð!  Íå îñîáî ïåðåæèâàé ,ïîáåäû åù¸ áóäóò!

	3. Written by Peter on 09:11 25 èþëÿ 2010 ã.
	 ïîèñêàõ.. Ñïàñèáî, Èâàí! Âñå íîðìàëüíî, ðàáî÷àÿ ñèòóàöèÿ. http://pogonina.com

	4. Written by Þðèé on 17:06 25 èþëÿ 2010 ã.
	 ïîèñêàõ ìàñòåðñòâà-2 Îòâåò Ïåòðà ìíå ïîíðàâèëñÿ! Øó÷ó!=)Ñåãîäíÿ ïðî÷èòàë îäíî íàñòàâëåíèÿ äóõîâíîãî ëèäåðà! Îí ïðèçûâàåò âñåõ íèêîãäà íå ïåðåæèâàéòå è íå âîëíóéòåñü íå î ÷¸ì! Òàê êàê âîëíåíèå íèêîãäà íå ïîìîãàëî íè êîìó! Ïåòð! ß ñ÷èòàþ âàì íàäî ïî áîëüøå íàèãðûâàòü âàøè òðåíåðîâêè íà ïðàêòèêå êàê â èíåòå òàê è â ðåàëå.È î÷åíü âàæíî åñëè áóäóò ïîðàæåíèÿ ñðàçó óñòàíîâèòü ïðè÷èíó ýòîãî è âïðåäü íå ïîâòîðÿòü îäíó è òóæå îøèáêó! Æåëàþ Óäà÷è! Ñ Óâàæåíèåì Þðèé Âîëêîâ. http://www.womaninchess.com

	5. Written by S on 22:22 02 àâãóñòà 2010 ã.
	Â ïîèñêàõ ìàñòåðñòâà-2 Aw...I'm sorry for your score, but great articles so far. I hope you make it, good luck!

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