My Return to Tournament Play

After spending a large part of the last year playing a combination of blitz chess and correspondence chess, I figured it was time to return to competitive tournament chess, so I decided to shell out some money and play in a tournament. But how to prepare? Like I said I was on a diet of correspondence chess and blitz, so I wasn't quite ready to jump back into OTB competition. So naturally, I consulted the best resource I could find... Mikhail Botwinnik, or more exactly, Botwinnik's 100 Best Chess Games.

"Above all else, before playing in competition a player must have regard to his health, for if he is suffering from ill-health he cannot hope for success. In this connection the best of all tonics is 15 to 20 days in the fresh air, in the country."

Hmmm... 15 to 20 days of fresh air in the country, eh? Not a very realistic solution. My brother tried a variation of that at a chess tournament once, going ahead to the city 3 days ahead and drinking like a fish. That Botwinnik training method didn't work very effectively. But fear not, Botwinnik had some more applicable advice later on...

"Then I study those opening lines which I intend to apply during the contest. ...For one competition three or four opening systems for White and the same for Black are quite sufficient. But these systems must be prepared thoroughly. If you do not have such systems at your command you can hardly count on finishing very high in the table."

Three or four systems for White and Black?! I was about to play a three round tournament so I thought I'd simplify a little bit. What to play as White, and what to play v. 1.d4 and 1.e4. I've found that in my games (whether blitz, correspondence, or OTB) at my level, normally I'm out of "book" by about the fourth or fifth move, so obviously this wouldn't take up a great deal of my time, but this was a small but important step. I decided beforehand that I was going to play solidly as White and sharply as Black. It is more important to really "go for it" as Black especially in a short tournament. Against 1.e4 I decided on 1.e4 e5. There was really only one choice I had to make then. I play the Two Knights v. 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 and the Steinitz line against the Scotch. The Centre Opening, the King's Gambit and so forth are encountered so rare that I don't spend more than a cursory glance on them. So the big question once I decided on 1.e4 e5 was what am I going to play vs. the Ruy Lopez? I was going to try the Marshall attack but a lot of things have to go right for Black in order to get to that position, and once I get there, is it even better? So instead I decided on a more underrated system called the Open Ruy Lopez Players such as Tarrasch, Korchnoi and Yusupov have championed this line over the years and it is a great line to get some counterplay as Black. Since the "tabiya" position above is five moves in, there are very few opportunities for White to avoid this line. The main opportunity that White has to avoid the Ruy Lopez is on move four, when he has the opportunity to play the Exchange Lopez Emmanuel Lasker used this line in the early 1900s and it was generally avoided by masters until Bobby Fischer reintroduced it into practice at the 1966 Havana Olympiad. I probably shouldn't be saying this to a bunch of potential opponents ;) but I find it one of the hardest lines to face as Black. In 1946, former World Champion Max Euwe analysed the pawn structure of the Exchange Ruy Lopez without any pieces in an interesting study:

Start position 1. Ke2 Ke7 2. Ke3 Ke6 3. f4 c5 4. c4! c6 5. a4 b5 6. b3 f6 7. a5 b4 8. g4 g5 ) 9. e5! White can sacrifice a pawn, because the outside passed-pawn is the decisive factor 9... gxf4+ 10. Kxf4 fxe5+ 11. Ke4 h6 12. h4 Kf6 13. g5+! hxg5 14. hxg5+ Kxg5 15. Kxe5 Kg4 16. Kd6 Kf4 17. Kxc6 Ke4 18. Kxc5 Kd3 19. Kxb4 Kd4 20. Ka3 Kc5 21. Ka4 Kd4 22. Kb4 Ke4 23. Kc5 and White wins

Obviously that is not forced, but to a Ruy Lopez player it should throw up a caution flag against thinking the Exchange Lopez is a drawing line similar to the Slav Exchange. What that study shows me, if nothing else, is a couple of things. Firstly, the queenside majority is almost useless for Black because of the doubled pawns. Secondly, wholesale changes result in a stronger position for White. So this creates a general game plan for me, v. the Exchange Lopez. Keep as much wood on the board as possible, and strive to undouble the queenside pawns so I can create a passer. I've had troubles with most of the main lines v. 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.O-O. The positions arising out of 5...f6 don't suit my style (believe me I've learned the hard way), and I find the 5...Bg4 lines too sloppy (e.g. sharp but ultimately better for White). So during an email exchange with Canadian IM Lawrence Day, he recommended former co-world champion David Bronstein's line of 5...Qd6 which makes no concessions to pawn structure, and encourages queenside castling. It seemed like a (relatively) perfect fit. ? In all honesty, this was my biggest worry about playing 1.e4 e5 because I have had troubles with the Exchange Lopez over the years.

Now what about 1.d4? I wanted to try an Indian defence because then I can try to transpose into an Indian defence v. 1.c4 as well (via 1.c4 Nf6 2.d4). Basically that came down to two choices…either the Grünfeld or the Nimzo Indian. Those are two of the sharpest 1.d4 defences, and I'm still not convinced on the "correctness" of the Benoni or the KID. I eventually decided on the Nimzo because, despite the fact I have Jonathon Rowson's excellent "Understanding the Grünfeld", the Grünfeld is one of those defences you have to play a lot in order to get comfortable with it, and I've played the Nimzo for years. Normally I play a fairly straightforward Nimzo system consisting of ...O-O, ...c5, ...d5, ...b6, ...Bb7, ...Nc6 etc. but I was inspired by this game by Eugenio Torre to try a ...d6, ...Nc6, ...e5, ...O-O-O system which was absolutely new to me. Personally I believe it's always important to try something new at each tournament, so even though I was playing an opening I had used for years, there was a new wrinkle I could possibly try out. But what if they avoid the Nimzo with 3.Nf3? In previous years, I had played the Queen's Indian Defence with 3...b6, hoping for 4.Nc3 and playing 4...Bb4 and backdooring into a Nimzo-Indian, but instead I decided to go into a Queen's Gambit with 3...d5 My idea here still wasn't very clear…there are lots of options including the Semi-Slav, the Queen's Gambit Accepted and many others which I have dabbled with over the years. I figured out of two Blacks, the chances were remote that I would get 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 and I would decide over the board.

I had already mentioned my ideas v. 1.c4. There was no use putting further thought into lines like 1.Nf3, 1.g3, 1.f4 , 1.b4 etc. I had certain things I played against them and there was no need to reinvent the wheel. Besides, like I said earlier I only expected two blacks so no need to go crazy.

Now what to play as White? I have played five things in rated OTB before 1.e4, 1.d4, 1.c4, 1.Nf3 and 1.f4, but the English has fallen out of my repertoire so my choices are "down" to four. Each has it's pros and cons. Pretty early on I decided against 1.e4. I only really enjoy playing against 1.e4 e5 and wasn't looking forward to a diet of Sicilians, Pirc, Alekhines, Scandinavians, you name it. I didn't really want to play 1.d4 because I can get the same lines with 1.Nf3 by playing 2.d4 except I avoid things like the Albin countergambit and the Budapest because of the early Nf3. Now I would miss out the chance to play the Nimzo-Indian as White, which I would enjoy, but I could get the chance to play an Open Sicilian v. 1.Nf3 c5 2.e4. I've found that 1.Nf3 turns a lot of Indian players into Queen's Gambit players because they instinctively play 1... d5 which I turn into a Queen's Gambit by 2.d4, 3.c4 etc. Psychology is a big part of the opening stages of chess and I always want them playing *my* game and me calling the shots. My brother talked me into choosing the fourth option though, the Bird 1.f4. At my level it isn't any worse than any of the other choices, and it's relatively rare, so every one doesn't have their favorite Sicilian/Nimzo/King's Indian/French to throw at it, and I've found that some people have trouble finding a good plan against it. An added bonus, which swayed me over, was that by avoiding the From's Gambit 1.f4 e5 by 2.e4! it turns into a King's Gambit which I've been a closet player of for years. Again, this turns Sicilian players v. 1.e4 into 1.e4 e5 players. My brother kidded me that I could be a positional master if they responded 1.f4 d5 and a tactical master if they responded 1.f4 e5. In addition there's a lot less for me to worry about theoretically so I can focus my limited energies into my openings as Black.

So, with that straightened out, I decided to go back to Botwinnik:

"So now your schemes are worked out; but even that is not enough. Certain of them – those of which you are not absolutely sure – should be tried out in training games. Of course, these games must be played with a partner who will keep them secret, otherwise all your opponents will be as well acquainted with them as you are, and all your opening preparation will be wasted."

This is good advice. I despise playing against chess playing computers and there's no guarantees that you will get what you're looking for on ICC, SchemingMind or anywhere else. For instance, the percentage of Ruy Lopezes I get in real life OTB chess is a lot higher v. 1.e4 e5 (vs. Scotch, Two Knights, etc.) than the internet. Luckily for me I have a chess playing brother who is relatively the same strength. So I talked him into playing a couple of training games with me. They were set at 35 minutes per side, which was lower than the time control for the tournament, just so I could get used to analyzing, recording my moves, etc. The openings were thematic and in lines that I wasn't certain of. The first game was set up with me as White at the position after 1.f4 d5. (Light annotations provided by me)

Refutor – K.S.
Training Match (1) G/50
A03 – Bird's Opening : Lasker variation

1. f4 d5 2. Nf3 c5!? Bird himself called this move weak (or was it Blackburne) because this makes it easier for White to develop his light squared bishop 3. e3 Nf6 4. Bb5+?! Following Bird-Janowski Hastings 1895, but this is wrong. Better is 4.b3 and I can wait for him to move his knight so I can play Bb5 with a pin. 4... Bd7 5. Bxd7+ Nbxd7 6. b3 e6 7. Bb2 Bd6 8. Qe2?! Maybe not the strongest move, but I was planning on trying d3, e4 to open the centre that away, also I wanted to keep the option of castling queenside a threat. I only half intended to do it, but the threat is greater than the execution or something :) 8... O-O 9. d3 d4?! My brother wanted to open the centre since I was behind on development, but I wonder if this wasn't best 10. exd4 Bxf4 11. Nbd2 Rc8 11...cxd4 12.Bxd4 e5 was better ...killing my bishop 12. c4 Qa5 13. O-O Rfe8 14. dxc5 Qxc5+ 15. d4 Qa5 16. Ne4 Nxe4 17. Qxe4 Qc7 18. Rad1 The immediate 18.Ne5 was better…blocking off the pieces from the kingside after Bxe5 19.dxe5 18... Nf6 19. Qe2 Ng4! This seemed strong during the game... I wonder if I picked the right continuation 20. Rd3 20.g3! Ne3 21.gxf4 Qxf4 22.Ne5 was strong for White 20... Bxh2+ 21. Kh1 Bg3 22. Ne5 22.Ng5! was better 22. …Nh6 23.Qe4 Nf5 24.d5 22... Nxe5 23. dxe5 Bh4 24. Qh5 Bd8 Fritz says its even, but I believe I'm in the driver's seat 25. Rh3 h6 26. Bc1 I'm better in all lines 26... f5?? 1-0

My brother's line loses instantly, but let's see what else there was

26...Qd7
a) 27.Bxh6 g6 28.Qf3+-
b) 27.Rg3 Bg5 28.Bxg5 hxg5 29.Qxg5 f5 30.exf6 Rg8 +-

I was winning in all variations. We played a few more training games, but this was an illustrative example of me playing a line that I wasn't quite familiar with against a relatively even training partner, and learning a couple of things.

So with my openings picked out, and with some practice games in the openings that I've chosen, I go back to Botwinnik for some more preparation advice:

"If you are weak in the endgame, you must spend more time on analyzing studies; in your training games you must aim at transposing to endgames, which will help you to acquire the requisite experience. Similar methods will make good your deficiencies in middle-game play, though here the problem is more complicated."

And at kevinspraggett.com, Canadian GM Kevin Spraggett recommends:

"To improve tactics it is no secret that problem solving is beneficial (good old work). When I have to train for a big tournament, about two weeks before it is scheduled to begin I start spending not less than 2 hours per day just solving problems... Two weeks for me is an optimum period that my experience has shown works best for me. What works for you is something that you can only know by experimentation....

On the day of a game I also try between 30 minutes to 1 hour of problem solving. I find that these problems right before the game really wake me up and get me ready to 'fight' as soon as I sit down at the board."

I knew it! I just knew it was a matter of time before the masters recommended studying endings and tactics. I have wrestled with this problem for a *long* time, because I don't enjoy doing endgame studies, or tactical problems. I do like playing through games though. So what I did was go out and purchase a game collection called "Capablanca's Best Chess Endings" by Irving Chernev and played through that. It is a collection of 60 games from by the former world champion that were decided in the endgame. I was learning endings without actually studying an endgame manual. Some people may say that learning endings by playing through games is less efficient than sitting down with a Reuben Fine tome, but I figure that there are lots of things I can learn from looking at Capablanca's games besides winning won endings. I plowed through that book with great joy.

But what about tactics? As I said before, I have Reinfeld's 1001 Chess Tactics, and Polgar's Tactics book and the only thing I use them for is a sedative when I can't get to sleep! Luckily, the solution came in the mail. My friend, Neil Frarey, mailed me the program CT-ART by Convekta. I can't recommend this program enough. While I found going through the tactic books tedious, using this program to do basically the same problems is fantastic. I've done tactical problems every day since I've gotten this program and I love every minute of it. For people similar to myself, who have trouble sitting down with a tactics book and solving problems, this may be a good alternative for you.

Botwinnik had a little more advice, part of which you're helping with right now:

"I must mention one other possibility of achieving perfection which I myself have always tried to carry out.

What is the essence of a chess master's art? Fundamentally it consists of the ability to analyse chess positions. True, at the board, you must be able to analyse very quickly and without touching the men; but in the last resort, whether you are working out the possible variations or estimating the actual position, chess is the art of analysis.

Home analysis has specific features of its own: you are not restricted by time, and you can move the men freely. Despite this difference between home analysis and practical play, there is much in common between them. It is a well known fact that almost all the outstanding chess-players have been first-class analysts.

The deduction is irresistible: anyone who wishes to become an outstanding chess-player must aim at perfection in the realm of analysis.

There is one other essential difference between analysis and practical play; during play your analytical work is continually being tested against your critically-minded opponents, but in home analysis it is very easy to be unobjective. To fight this tendency and to get away from poor analysis it is useful to publish your individual analytical work. Then you are subject to objective criticism. IN other words, published analysis, or quite simply, annotation of games for the press, is a sure method of arriving at perfection."

So fellow Schemingmind.com members, this is why I have made this article. To analyze some of the games I have played and will play in the tournament. Analysis is very important and the Internet is the perfect medium to get feedback.

As a sidenote, during this preparatory period, I definitely doubted my actions. My results in blitz chess went seriously downhill, causing me to doubt my choices of openings and the worth of the CT-ART and Capablanca training. I was nervous about what to play right up until I sat down for my first game. My rating was 1499 CFC and it was supposed to be split into two sections, Open and U1700 so I had assumed that the toughest player I would take on would be 1700. As fortune would have it, they combined the sections into one tournament and just split the prizes (e.g. prize for the player with the most points and prize for the player rated under 1700 with the most points) so in the first round I would have White against a local expert, and the fourth highest seed in the tournament.

Refutor (1499) – NN (2004)
Anonymous tournament (1)

1. f4 I stuck to my preparation believe it or not. My hand hovered over the e-pawn before I made this move. Come on, come on, please play 1...e5 1... d5 Darn it. Oh well, good thing I played some of those training games against my brother... hint, hint 2. Nf3 c5 Similar to the game above, Black tries to dominate the board with his pawns, but in doing so makes it easier to develop my light squared bishop. As White I prefer Black to play more aggressively like this against my setup, than a more passive such as I encountered later on in the tournament continuing 2...Nf6 3.e3 Bg4 4.b3 e6 5.Bb2 Be7 and believe it or not I didn't get that light squared bishop off the first rank until move 16 3. e3 Nc6 Again I think this is making things too easy on White 4. Bb5 Bd7 5. b3 This is the stereotypical setup I use when I play the Bird. My goal at this point, playing an opponent who is rated 500+ points more than me, is to get to a middlegame that I relatively understand. 5... Nf6 6. Bb2 e6 7. O-O This has all been pretty straightforward so far. 7... Qc7!? This move was the first one that wasn't "theory" according to my Megabase at home. 7...Be7 and 7...Bd6 have been played before. I think he was trying to threaten queenside castling, but I don't think that was a realistic threat. 8. Bxc6 I was thinking about playing 8.Bxf6 gxf6 and destroying his pawn structure and forcing his king to be centralized or moderately defended by the queenside pawn structure, but I was worried about the impending kingside attack. He was rated 500 points higher than me, so I was pretty sure he could take advantage of the open file better than I could defend. It's sad but true. ? Plus positionally, my dark squared bishop was the best piece on the board. 8... Bxc6 If 8...Qxc6 I was going to play 9.Ne5 and get a perfect square for the knight with tempo e.g. 9...Qc7 10.Nxd7 Qxd7 11.Bxf6 gxf6 is favored by the computer, but again, I didn't like the open g-file. This may be okay though. 9. Be5 After reading my notes to my 8th move, some may call me a hypocrite for moving "the best piece on the board" to e5 where it will likely get exchanged, but hear me out. I assumed (correctly) that he was going to block the attack on the queen, then if he captured my bishop on e5, the knight would be even stronger on e5 than it would be previously, because without Black having a dark squared bishop, it will be much harder for Black to remove the knight from e5, having to move the f6-knight to d7 and the exchange allowing me to open the f-file. Ironically, that's exactly what happened. 9... Bd6 10. Nc3 Keep on developing 10... Bxe5 11. Nxe5 Nd7?! Obviously simpler to play like this v. a patzer like me, but Fritz liked 11...d4! Opening lines towards my king 12.exd4 cxd4 13.Ne2 Rd8 for instance looks very strong. 12. d4! This strong move, putting the question to the pawn on c5, gave me some initiative 12... O-O 13. Ne2 13... Rac8 13...f6 might be better, and could be played either here or on the next move. My knight is too strong on e5. 14. Rc1 Nxe5? Maybe individually this move isn't that bad, but the question mark is for the plan, not for the move. Black is doing nothing to counter my plans, and is giftwrapping a kingside attack for me. He has provided me with an open f-file, a lot of his pieces are on the queenside, there is a pawn on e5, and my knight is much better than his bishop. A kingside attack is inevitable. 15. fxe5 Qa5 Seeking queenside counterplay, but also moving another piece to the queenside 16. a4 c4 17. Nf4 b5?! Obviously he wasn't worried about the kingside, or he may have tried 17...g6 instead. Even if he plays that I can still get my pieces in around his king. 18. Nh5! Qc3 19. Qf3 bxa4 20. Qg3?!

I saw that I could at least get a perpetual here, but when I got home Fritz revealed to me 20.Nxg7!
a) 20...Kxg7 21.Qf6+ Kg8 22.Rf3 +-
b) 20...axb3 21.Nh5 f5 22.Qg3+ Kf7 23.Qg7+ Ke8 24.Nf6+ etc.

I saw some of that over the board, but I couldn't make it work. Also I saw the potential mate that followed, but assumed that the expert would take a draw when it was available. A draw vs. someone rated significantly higher than me would be a fabulous start to the tournament so we continued.

20... g6 21. Nf6+ Kg7 22. Nh5+= and at this point I offered a draw because he can get a perpetual by moving his king back and forth. If he doesn't take the perpetual he's in trouble. Since he was rated 500 points higher than me, he said "nyet" and played... 22... Kh8 23. Nf6 axb3?? 24. Qh3! I had calculated this finish a lot earlier, opening up the g- and h-file culminating in a checkmate. I got the idea for the checkmating pattern from a game Oll-Ulibin Even though I'm not arrogant enough to compare my game to that beautiful game, the idea was similar. 24... h5 25. Nxh5 gxh5 26. Qxh5+ Kg7 27. Qg5+ Kh7 28. Rf3 1-0

I was very happy with this game. My second expert scalp. This proves that CT-ART works (for me) because I saw the idea for the mate a couple of moves ahead. Plus I won a game with the Bird so now I can retire it for a while and my opening preparation paid off a little bit.

So how did it end? Did I go riding off into the sunset with glorious victories using Bronstein's line in the Ruy Lopez, or the Open Lopez or using the King's Gambit? Sadly no, I lost my other two games, both versus higher rated players, and they made short work of me. I gave a fragment of my second round game above, and my third game was the Black side of the Trompowsky where I made a couple of bizarre moves in the opening, an incorrect sacrifice and dearly paid the price. It was just a one day tournament with three rounds, so I definitely underestimated the energy I would be expending. The tournament was three hours away from my home, so instead of going the night before and staying over, I made the boneheaded decision to wake up at 6am and go down that morning. I will not do that again. I was an absolute zombie by the end of it. So what did I learn? I need to play more games, and at longer time controls to get used to playing, and try to cut the blitz out of my diet. I've also got to try to keep a positive attitude throughout the whole tournament, no matter how I'm playing. I'm an emotional player, and I take wins too well, and losses too badly. Also I need more of a fighting spirit. Even though I didn't show my two losses, trust me when I say that I could've and should've put up more of a fight in both of them. I fully enjoyed myself and I can guarantee that it won't be so long before I play another.

And I'll finish with one more quote from Mikhail Moisevich:

"That is all the advice I can give the player, but it is advice that I myself continually try to follow. Possibly some of my suggestions will not be of much benefit to some players; each much consider them critically and apply them with caution, taking his own individual capacities and habits into account."