Do you need tips for your first chess tournament? This guide has everything you need for tournaments as a beginner.
If you are a chess player, then you have probably heard of the chess tournaments. The game of chess has a vast number of players in the world.
There are approximately 800 Million Chess Players in the world of which about 1500 were titled as the Grandmasters.
Many Chess player are facing difficulties in the tough process of preparation for the tournaments.
Are you also facing the same problem to prepare for the tournaments?
Are you looking for any master strategies that will help you to prepare for your tournaments?
As you all know that chess is a game of strategies.
So, why most players ignore the importance of making the strategy for the preparation.
The strategy is the most important part of chess games and also in the preparation of chess games.
Now, I will tell you those 10 tournaments tip that Magnus Carlsen uses. These Tips help me a lot in the national as well as international tournaments and to handle different situations at different times.
In this chess guide, I will give you 10 master chess championship strategies that will enhance your Performance to the 10X.
You have to try different strategies because some strategies will work out for you, but some do not work as per your level, your playing styles, your IQ level, and many other factors make a huge difference in the chess strategies along with the interest of the chess players.
10 Chess Tournaments Tips For Beginners
As I had said above that I will provide you the master tips to plan the preparation of these tournaments and make your chess strategy.
Here are ten tips for your first tournament.
- Study Chess Books before the tournament.
- Use the 20/40/40 Chess Rule.
- Study Chess Tactics Daily For Pattern Reorganization.
- Practice Over the physical Chess Board.
- Practice Against The Chess Clocks.
- Playing with a person, or join a chess club.
- Begin with the endgames.
- Improve You Calculation Skills.
- Improve Your Psychological Skills.
- Train Other Chess players.
Now, I will explain these chess Strategies for you.
Study Chess Books before Tournament
The first tip that I will recommend you is that you should study at least one chess book before going for the tournaments.
This will help you to learn how to play chess better overall.
The chess book reading is a strategic process, so you have planned it in the parts of the chess preparation phases.
As chess books are very important to practice material for chess players.
But most of the chess player indulges in a confusion that which types of chess books you should study just before the tournaments, which books you have to study a month before the tournament, and which books in between this time.
Here you can use many strategies as per your level of chess skills.
Now, you may have a question in your mind that how should you study chess books.
Then you have to think about the best move yourself.
If you made the best move, perfect. But if you are failed to make the best move, then you have to check the correct move and have to find the reason why your move is not correct and why the move made by that player is best.
At first, you will find it difficult to find the best move, but as you continue this process for at least one or two years, then you will be able to think at least one to two moves.
So, this is one of the best procedures to reading any book on chess.
Use the 20/40/40 Chess Rule
If you are confused about which phase of chess, you should spend more time.
If you are looking for any strategy that you can use for chess preparation, but you are not as strong a player.
Then I will recommend the 20/40/40 rule in chess to you which you can use to plan your chess studies.
Have you ever heard this rule of chess preparation before?
I personally along with many experts such as many chess grandmasters also recommend this rule to the players who have ELO rating under 2000.
According to this rule, the players below 2000 ELO rating should devote their 20% time in studying openings, 40% time in studying middle games, and the remaining 40% in learning and sharpening the skills of the endgames.
This practice may include studying chess books, watching videos, analyzing the games, reading blog posts, etc.
People are using this strategy and it also worked for them.
But most of the players ignore this rule.
They focus on only one part of the game, i.e. chess openings, middle game, or on the endgames; but they ignore the importance of the other parts.
I am also one of those players who indulge in these false tactics, but as I started applying this strategy, there is a lot of improvement in my chess skills.
Each phase of the chess game is equally important.
There is a popular saying of Rudolph Spielmann.
“Play the opening like a book, the middle game like a magician, and the endgame like a machine.”
The Openings is known as very theoretical and must be remembered; the middle games are full of attacking and tactical ideas and it needs a strategy, planning, creativity, and deep knowledge of chess skills; and the last endgames need a complete accuracy and it very static and must be played like a machine.
If this does not work for you, then you should try to make your own 20/40/40 rule as per your facilities. But you should give time to each part of the game.
Study Chess Tactics Daily for Pattern Recognition
Chess Tactics are the most interesting part of chess games.
One of the skills needed in chess is pattern recognition. You can improve yours by studying chess tactics on a daily basis.
But this is very difficult to memorize by one day practice because all the tactics have different patterns and they are also different from the chess principles as they contain the sacrifices or the instant win of the game.
But according to the King of Sacrifices, Mikhail Tal, tactics and sacrifices also follow some of the chess principles and can be implemented only after completing the development.
You can’t develop the tactical pattern recognition skills only by studying a few examples, or just by watching or reading the guides.
But these are also important. Along with them, you should also practice a lot of chess puzzles.
As per me, a total of 10 puzzles are good at starting for the beginners, but as you gain some experience in chess you should solve at least 30-40 puzzles daily to become good tactical players.
For the Chess Tactics, you can trust the Chess rulers, as it contains a large database of chess games, chess puzzles, and other chess positions.
By studying hundreds of thousands of chess positions, you would be able to recognize the tactical patterns.
This study material includes the players’ games, chess positions of different patterns, checkmate patterns, and much more chess materials to study.
This might sharpen the chess tactical skills and help you to recognize the tactical patterns such as the pins, sacrifice, checkmate patterns.
If you are a crazy player and want to make the chess game more interesting, then you should improve your tactical skills and have to master it.
Practice over the Physical Chess Board
Till now, we have discussed the practice through chess books, chess engines, chess software, and other chess sources.
But had you remembered any of these chess equipment using in your official matches?
The answer is No.
You have to play on the physical Chessboard for your chess practice as this will improve your analysis as well as the visualization skills.
Chess is a sport that needs the match practice, if you are out of match practice, and read a lot of chess books, and then it will be not as efficient as through the match practice.
For that, you have to play on the physical chessboard with one of your levels or even higher. He could be your friend, family member, or any other person with whom you can play chess effectively.
The main idea behind this is that by doing this you will get a chance to implement those skills and strategies.
By implementing this on the chessboard, you will get to know about the mistakes and loopholes in your strategy and you will get to know about where you need more practice and have to change your chess strategy, whether it is opening, middle game section or the ending part.
If you do practice over the computers only, then your Visualization skills over-the-board (OTB) will be affected, which will come out as a very huge problem in the official tournaments.
By practicing over the chessboard, you will be able to generate more plans and will be able to generate more ways to implement these plans.
That’s why; you have to practice over the chessboard along with studying and playing chess on computers.
Practice Against the Chess Clocks
All the players learn to play chess and think of playing in the chess tournaments.
But in chess, there are many other factors, all added to it other than the chess boards, chess pieces, or chess tournaments pressure. That is a Chess Clock.
As you all know that the chess clocks have become the integrated part of the chess tournaments in the present world.
That’s why time also plays an important role in chess tournaments.
Have you ever lost any winning game due to the time pressure?
I know that you are also among those players who had lost their winning game due to lack of time in the chess clocks.
Most players whether the inexperienced beginners or the strong players full of experience indulge in this time pressure.
If you can handle the time pressure and can find the good moves under the time pressure, then you will have an advantage.
Nowadays, Time pressure is one of the major reasons for the loss of players in chess tournaments.
In the book secrets of practical chess, John Nunn wrote the following.
“The clock is just as much a part of the game as the board and pieces and losing because of time-trouble is no different than losing because of weak play – it’s still zero points on the score sheet.”
Here I will tell you the tips to handle the time pressure.
The Major Reasons for Time Pressure
As you all know that nothing happens in this world without any reason.
There are many reasons due to which almost all the players face the problem of time pressure.
Here are the main factors of time pressure.
- Assuming Every Position as critical: The Major reason for the time pressure is that most of the players are unable to make the decision that which is the normal position or which is the critical one. They assume all the positions as the critical point of the match, and when the critical point of the match comes, the player falls in the time pressure.
- Playing Perfect Chess: All the players think a lot in the match more than that is required because they want to play the perfect chess. They want to make all the moves the best moves of the game. That’s why they lost valuable time in the game that could be used later in crucial moments of the match or for building the plans in different positions.
- Lack of Concentration: As you know that chess is a game of strategies in which there is an urgent need to make the plans and ideas to win that game. This needs full focus and concentration over the board. But if there is a lack of concentration over the board then the player will take more time to make their plans and initially their moves, which indulges them in the time pressure.
- Poor Opening Knowledge: The Opening is based on the bookish knowledge and is very theoretical, that could be played by memorizing the opening moves. The players who have poor opening knowledge take more time in this static part and face the time pressure.
One solution for time pressure is that you have to find out what is the reason for the time pressure.
Take less time on less crucial moments in the game, trust yourself, study the opening well, and gain well-opening knowledge.
You have to trust that there is not any perfect chess; you have to make good plans and implement them in your games.
Time Pressure Tips
- You have to practice against the chess Clocks to handle the time. This will help you to get the experience of playing by chess clocks and you will be also getting habitual in playing under the time pressure.
- You can play the practice matches with less time than that of your opponents. By this, you will get two benefits. Firstly, you will get confidence in handling the time pressure and secondly, you can now make plans and ideas without any fear of time pressure as you know that how to handle the time pressure even in the crucial positions of the game.
- Tactics are the best option for very slow players. The players who get a lot of time pressure have to search for some tactical opportunities. By this, you can finish your game instantly. Even I am using this strategy in my official matches.
- If you still get time pressure in the match, then you should not worry about and tell yourself to relax. At this time, you should drink at least a glass of water and focus on the game. Even I am using this strategy in mu official matches.
By doing these, you can handle the time pressure and it is also an important chess tournament strategy and it a very useful tip.
Playing With A Person, Or Join A Chess Club
As the Chess is a multiplayer board game, it is more interactive when it is played among the two chess players.
The Chess Players can do the Home Study of Chess Books, or play against the computers. Even playing online multiplayer or online Chess tournaments is a very great task.
But there is no other substitute for the face-to-face matches.
The players should do their chess study online, can play online, but they should also play chess matches with their friends as I have discussed above.
Playing face-to-face over the board is very useful in learning, implementing, or sharpening your chess skills.
By playing face-to-face you will be able to feel your heart races. This also increases the engagement of your concentration and also you can calculate the chess moves very deeply.
You should join any chess club, as it increases your engagements over the new world of chess communities.
The Club tournaments also provide you with the official rating which helps you to track your level of progress.
All the official chess associations have a list of their chess tournaments and they have their club directories.
The major benefit of joining a chess club is that by this you can play with the chess players face-to-face over the board.
Here you will meet with the players that have different abilities and have different playing styles.
By playing with these club players, you will also get experience of playing in the chess tournaments. Now, you can counter the pressure of the tournament arena and by playing in the fewer time formats such as blitz or rapid, you will be able to counter-back the time pressure that you can face in the official chess tournaments.
If you are afraid of playing with strangers or with the stronger players, then you must try this chess strategy for your chess tournaments.
Begin Your Chess Practice with the Endgames
Are you confused in the query that from where should you begin your chess practice?
If you have made you plan that you have to practice chess with all the phases as per the 20/40/40 rule, but you have a fear in mind that how I could complete my chess practice through all the chess stuff.
Then, I am here to solve your problem.
You should always begin your chess practice with the endgame study.
If you have covered your opening part through a chess book and your middle game is also very good, but your ending is not good you will probably lose that game.
There is a logic behind this. Suppose your opponent’s game is equal to you and you had an advantage in the openings, and you have consolidated it in the material advantage in the phase of the middle game, but you have not practiced the endgame then result of the game will be against you.
But opposite to this, you have studied the endgame first, and then if you passed the opening and middle phase of the game, you have an edge over your opponent in the endgame, and the result of the game would be in favor of you.
The major reason for the loss of the players is that they undermine the importance of the endgames which becomes the major reason of losing in the chess tournaments.
Moreover, the endgames are very interesting and a lot of material endgames are available online.
That’s why; you should study the endgames first.
Focus On Improvement Of Your Chess Calculation Skills
Do you feel excited about your move after when your opponent move has completed?
But you have to make your move after all the calculations and calculating all the ideas.
As you know chess is a game of calculations. In chess, you have to calculate a lot of moves at a time.
If you have very strong calculation skills, then you will make fewer mistakes and surely win the game.
If you make fewer mistakes and will be in good condition, then it will increase your confidence.
Chess Calculation Strategies
The Master Calculation strategies that many of the Chess grandmasters use are:
- Always start your calculations by observing the consequences of your opponent’s last move.
- Calculation skills also depend highly on chess visualization skills, by playing some blindfold games at least 3 times a week.
- Along with the visualization skills, tactical skills also support the calculation skills. You should solve a dozen tactics every day to improve
- You should read the calculation books.
- The best way to improve calculation skills is to solve as much as positions as you can.
So, these are some of the strategies that you must follow to improve your calculation skills.
Improve Your Psychological Skills
The major fact is that is chess is a good exercise of psychology.
As chess is a strategic board game, it needs a lot of energy, high IQ, and also needs a lot of creativity to make plans to win the game.
Every player must think about the game of chess as a source of exercise of psychology.
If you create multiple threats, then it would be very difficult for your opponent to counter-attack you in chess.
Even the great players of chess such as GM Garry Kasparov has developed a unique style of playing with a keen sense of observation that helps him to access all his strength, undermining the opponent’s strength by exploiting the opponent’s psychological deficiencies.
This example proves that you can use this psychological factor of chess in your chess matches by making yourself psychologically strong so that you could take the benefits from the psychological deficiencies of your opponents.
Master Tip: For improving the psychological skills, I recommend you to do meditation regularly.
Train Other Chess Players
Training other chess players is the best way to improve your chess skills.
By sharing your knowledge with others, and teaching the chess concepts and the chess strategies to others, you master it to the next level.
For teaching those things that you know, sometimes, you may have to formulate your ideas in the simplest way that is easy-to-understand.
By helping others to master those things, you will also become the chess master one day.
To improve the chess exponentially, you have to work on it in a well defined systematic way with a mind-blowing strategy.
Here is a list of ways to improve your skills for your first tournament.
- Study Chess Tactics
- Read Positional Play Games
- Improve Attacking Skills
- Learn The Endgame Technique
- Do Classical Games Analysis Daily
- Do Psychological preparation
So, by this, you can improve your chess skills and can also do mastery in any of the components of chess preparation strategy.
How Can These Chess Tournaments Tips Help You?
Many Chess Players Have Doubts in their minds that how these chess tournament Tips help them.
So, here I will tell you how these chess tournaments tips help you to win your chess matches.
The Chess Tournaments are a very important event for chess players.
Many Chess players make a lot of mistakes in the chess tournaments and they even indulge in confusion that what to do if they make a mistake.
Sometimes, the chess players need a guide to know how they have to prepare for the chess tournaments.
I bet you that you are also facing the same problem, and that’s why you are looking for some tips and strategies that will help you to do the right practices in the right direction that will help you keep on the right track.
For that, I had made 10 tournaments strategies to help you, people, to prepare you for the chess tournaments.
Way Ahead: So, these are 10 hot tournament tips that I use in 2020. You must apply these strategies during your tournament preparation process.
Tell me which of the Chess strategies you use and which you like that you will apply from today onwards.
Also, discuss these chess strategies in the forums of Chess Rulers. I will personally reply to the answers of the people that I like in the forum section.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you do a good chess tournament?
You can do a good chess tournament by following the following chess strategies:
1. Study Chess Books before the tournament
2. Use the 20/40/40 Chess Rule
3. Study Chess Tactics Daily For Pattern Reorganization
4. Practice Over the physical Chess Board
5. Practice Against The Chess Clocks
6. Playing with a person, or join a chess club
7. Begin with the endgames
8. Improve You Calculation Skills
9. Improve Your Psychological Skills
10. Train Other Chess players
These are 10 Strategies which you can use to do good at Chess Tournament.
How do chess players prepare?
The Chess players prepare for any chess championships by the following procedure:
1. By studying chess books for openings.
2. By analyzing the games of Chess GMs.
3. By analyzing their own mistakes in the previous matches.
4. By playing against the Clocks
5. And many more chess strategies that I have discussed here.
The Chess Players prepare using these chess strategies.
What is the best opening move in chess?
Usually, all the chess openings are good and have different ideas. But still, due to their high attacking potential for the white and high defensive potential for black, the few openings moves that are considered as the best chess openings are:
Best Chess Opening Move For White
1. Italian Opening
2. Queen’s Gambit
3. London System
4. King Indian Attack
Best Chess Opening Move For Black
1. Sicilian Defense
2. Caro-Kann Defense
3. French Defense
4. King’s Indian Defense
These are the best Openings moves in chess.
What is the best trick in chess?
Some Best Tricks in Chess are:
1. Halosar Trap
2. Marshal Trap
3. Legal Trap
These are some of the best tricks in chess.
Can you win chess in 2 moves?
Yes, you can win the game of chess in 2 moves by using the fool’s mate.
In chess, Fool’s Mate is the only option by which you can win chess in two moves.
This game goes like 1. f4, e6; 2. g4, Qh4#.
Conclusion
In this article, we went over some tips for your first chess tournament.
You should follow all the Chess Tournaments tips and guides that I had explained above if you are suffering from the poor experience in the chess tournaments or want to improve the level of your performance.
Apply these tips and you will be more prepared for competing in over the board tournaments.