In this post, I will be talking about my tournament mindset and how I will be approaching tournaments for the time being. Please reference my last blog post for the background of this post.
Recent Tournament Experience
I played two tournaments this past weekend. On Friday night, I played a 4 round swiss with a 30+0 time control. Saturday, I played a quads tournament that was 60+10 time control. On Friday I scored 1.5/4.0 and Saturday I scored 2.0/3.0.
I did not think I played great chess on Friday, and I was a little upset about it, but I thought I played much better Saturday and was happy with my result. I never like having a bad game or bad tournament, but they are bound to happen, so we must learn from them. This got me thinking how I should be approaching these tournaments.
Tournament Approach
One Big Tournament
If you have ever studied poker, you may have heard cash game players talk about viewing the game as one big session, and not looking towards one individual session to summarize your play. This allows you to take a step back and look at long term results without getting bogged down into each session or hand. Poker players have used this methodology for decades, and it is because they are much more familiar with variance.
I believe I can take the same approach for chess tournaments. Instead of trying to get bogged down in trying to win every game in every tournament and allowing that to sway my thoughts on my chess ability or progress, I will look my progress as one long session, trying to maximize my long-term improvements.
This does not mean I am not trying to win games or tournaments. Of course I try to win. All this means is that when I have a bad game, tournament, or month, I can try to learn from it to improve instead of dwelling on it for too long.
Moving Forward
I will be playing in tournaments coming up in late October, Early November, and December. Going into these tournaments, I believe it will be best to take every game as it comes, and avoid trying to relate every game to the success of that tournament, because this could lead to discouraging results.
Conclusion
I will not make master in 1 tournament. I will not make master in 1 month. I must take a step back and take a look at long term goals when it comes to evaluating my chess games, and take those games as lessons. These lessons are what it will take to make master, so ultimately I will not make master without losing lots of games.
This perspective change will hopefully lead to some good games in the future and more importantly better progress for my chess improvement.
I will post some games in the next edition of my blog, so keep a look out!
