I finished the British Championships with 50%, a slight rating game and a lot of lessons. As the tournament went on I became very tired, perhaps partly because of my uncompromising approach and partly because I'm now 65. Several other senior players seemed to struggle with stamina, but not so much Glenn Flear. I know that Glenn is quite careful about what he eats and drinks, and I think there's a lot to be learned from this.

From a technical point of view I felt that the new openings I've been learning needed more time to settle in, I've been changing things around and trying to modernize, so as to incorporate preparation with engines, but this comes at a cost. The preparation itself probably drained me of energy, I did an hour or two before every game because I felt that I needed it, but actually it is rather too much.

I lost two endgames that could be saved, against Michael Adams and Simon Williams. I tend to think that these were more because of tiredness than a lack of technique as I did not calculate out rather easily calculable pawn endgames. In one case, when I played my Kan Sicilian in round 8, I felt that my opponent only went for the main line because I was a bit too predictable.

So what should I work on? A good diet and fitness never goes amiss, my diet is OK but I've increased the amount of aerobic exercise I do. Cutting the amount of preparation during tournaments would be great, but this may need me be more fluent in the openings I am playing and plan to play. I don't think there's a short term solution to this, but by next year I'm hoping to have everything working pretty well.

Training Tournaments

This week's training tournaments are in the Queen's Gambit Declined, featuring the positions after 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.c4 e6 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Nc3 Bb4 and also 5...c6. These lines both feature in the White 1.d4 Repertoire, so this is an ideal opportunity to practice them:

Sunday August 17th at 5pm UK Time: QGD Ragozin with 5...Bb4

Sunday August 17th at 6.15pm UK Time: QGD Exchange with 5...c6
 

Video Discounts

This week's discount is 40% off buying the frequently misunderstood area of Understanding Strategy and Planning, using the code 'aug15to23'. This series presents a systematic way of approaching these areas by learning how to play different pawn structures and the plans and ideas they contain.

Last week's discount was 40% off buying The Why and How of Chess Annotations series, using the code 'august8to16', and is still valid until close of play tomorrow. This four hour series explains how you can use this reflective process as a powerful improvement tool.

My Upcoming Events

There's still nothing new from last week and I have a new project that I'll be working on from September. I will keep playing, but it will move down my list of priorities for a while.

Here is how things look now:

August 23 - 30 2025: San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Tenerife
This looks like a great event and I'm really looking forward to it. Travelling back is a bit tricky because the direct flights were very expensive, finally I found a flight back to Glasgow from where I can take a train or maybe another flight to Manchester!

September 5-7: Hull 4NCL Congress
I'm a big fan of 4NCL Congresses because they are played in nice venues, they're invariably well organized and they offer free entry and accommodation to GMs. You can find details here: 

Have a good weekend.

Nigel