Category Archives: TOURNAMENTS

BUILDING AN OPENING REPERTOIRE, TOURNAMENTS, TRAINING

WHAT MAKES A GOOD TEAM?

At the time of writing I'm at the World Senior Team Championships in Prague, playing top board for the England 50+ second team. We don't have a realistic chance of a medal, so there's a more relaxed atmosphere than in the first team. The event is also becoming stronger, newcomers this time round being a Kazakhstan men's and women's team.

What makes a good team? First off it's having good players, all other things being equal the best team will have the best chance of winning. Above and beyond that it does help to have players who get on with each other and are motivated to get the best possible result for the team. I think this explains how Kazakhstan and India have outperformed in recent Olympiads, they were teams of young players who were highly motivated, and this can offset minor differences in strength.

Who will win this year's Senior 50+ Championship? I think that the powerful US team has to be the favourite, but the Kazakhstan men's team is also in with a shot. They seem highly motivated and well prepared, which goes a very long way. This time next week we'll know if I am right.

Training Tournaments

This week's training tournaments return to a couple of lines from the Building an Opening Repertoire Course:

Sunday February 23rd at 5pm UK Time: QGD Meran with 5.e3 Bd6

Sunday February 23rd at 6.15pm UK Time: QGD with 5.Bg5 Be7

My Upcoming Events


Here's my schedule over the coming months, though it is subject to change. I often don't know until fairly late in the day:

April 4-14 2025: European Senior Team Championship

I finally got confirmation that I'll be in the 50+ 1st team, apparently on board 3 of a team that includes Michael Adams, John Emms, myself, Steve Dishman and Graeme Buckley.

April 24-28 2025: English Senior Championships

I'm hoping to be invited to these and may now be eligible for either section. You can find details here. 

July 31st - 10th August 2025: British Championships
These have now been confirmed for Liverpool on these dates, you can find details here. If I get invited to play in the main Championships, I'll probably accept. Otherwise I'm eligible for both the 50+ and 65+ sections, and should have a chance of doing well in either.

There will probably be one or two events between April and the end of July, it's important to keep playing in order to maintain good form.

Twitch Channel

My new Twitch channel has new shows every Monday ('Chess Questions Answered), the Webinar on training tournaments and games is up on Fridays and another weekly coming soon. Please follow it if you'd like to get updates etc, all the shows will be available to Premium members in the Tiger Chess members area, even when they are no longer available on Twitch.

Have a good weekend.

Nigel

MIDDLEGAMES, OPENINGS, POSITIONAL PLAY, TIGER CHESS THEMED TRAINING TOURNAMENTS, TOURNAMENTS, TRAINING

THE EASTERN CLAMP ANTI-SICILIAN

This week I published a first series of videos on of a new set of 1.e4 openings for White. I had previously balked at the idea of doing so as I felt that 1.e4 was too chaotic to allow the assimilation of positional ideas and too theoretical for amateurs to play with confidence. I changed my mind after discovering 1.e4 c5 2.d3 Nc6 3.f4, which I've dubbed The Eastern Clamp Anti-Sicilian. 

What's the idea behind this line? There are several. In the late 1980s I used to play 1.e4 c5 2.d3 Nc6 3.g3 in order to get a Closed Sicilian but without White's knight on c3. However I struggled against 3...d5 4.Nd2 Nf6 5.Bg2 e5 6.Ngf3 Be7; White's position is playable here but he's certainly not better. Reluctantly I gave it up and started using 1.d4 and Flank Openings instead, but I wish I'd taken a closer look at 3.f4. Yuri Balashov, a Closed Sicilian aficionado, was already playing this in the 1980s and it was also being advocated by Mikhail Shereshevsky, a famous coach. White takes central space, and the onus is on Black to try and offset this somehow.

From an amateur's perspective the advantage of this line is that it does not require a lot of theoretical knowledge, or any updates of such knowledge on an ongoing basis. It can be played mainly with ideas and plans, and the one sharp line looks rather dubious for Black. There are other low maintainance lines with 1.e4 and I will be covering more of these over the coming months. As an example, the Caro-Kann (1.e4 c6 2.d3 d5) can be met with 3.exd5 cxd5 4.Bd3, the strategically clear Exchange Variation.
 

Training Tournaments

This week's training tournaments feature the Eastern Clamp Anti-Sicilian, with two major branches from Black:

Sunday February 16th at 5pm UK Time: Eastern Clamp Anti-Sicilian with 1.e4 c5 2.d3 Nc6 3.f4 d5

Sunday February 16th at 6.15pm UK Time: Eastern Clamp Anti-Sicilian with 1.e4 c5 2.d3 Nc6 3.f4 g6

My Upcoming Events

Here's my schedule over the coming months, though it is subject to change. I often don't know until fairly late in the day:

February 16-27, 2025: World Senior Team Championship
I've accepted a place in the 50+ second team which means I'll play a much stronger field than on bottom board of the first team. Although this diminishes my chances of winning a medal I'm looking forward to the challenge.

April 4-14 2025: European Senior Team Championship

I finally got confirmation that I'll be in the 50+ 1st team, apparently on board 3 of a team that includes Michael Adams, John Emms, myself, Steve Dishman and Graeme Buckley.

April 24-28 2025: English Senior Championships

I'm hoping to be invited to these and may now be eligible for either section. You can find details here. 

July 31st - 10th August 2025: British Championships
These have now been confirmed for Liverpool on these dates, you can find details here. If I get invited to play in the main Championships, I'll probably accept. Otherwise I'm eligible for both the 50+ and 65+ sections, and should have a chance of doing well in either.

There will probably be one or two events between April and the end of July, it's important to keep playing in order to maintain good form.

Twitch Channel

My new Twitch channel has new shows every Monday ('Chess Questions Answered), the Webinar on training tournaments and games is up on Fridays and another weekly coming soon. Please follow it if you'd like to get updates etc, all the shows will be available to Premium members in the Tiger Chess members area, even when they are no longer available on Twitch.

Have a good weekend.

Nigel

OPENINGS, TACTICS, TOURNAMENTS, TRAINING, Uncategorized

ENERGY, FOCUS & CALCULATION SKILLS

It was good to see that Arjun Erigaisi recovered somewhat in the Tata Steel Masters, in the process inflicting the first defeat on Gukesh Dommaraju in a classical game, since he became World Champion. I'm quite sure that this will be just a blip on a great career for Erigaisi, that might well include becoming World Champion himself.

I have been looking at some Erigaisi games of late, partially in an attempt to understand the young generation players who almost effortlessly storm the ranks. From what I can tell they bring together a potent combination of energy, focus and calculating skills. If you play against a good calculator you are under tremendous pressure to avoid mistakes, one slip can be the end of you.

One of Erigaisi's interesting choices on the opening has been the ZOOM Scandinavian, and a couple of his games appeared in the webinar devoted to the Tigerchess.com Themed Training Tournaments. I think he sees it as a line that gets White thinking early on, with the pawn structure offering him chances to outplay his opponent. This series is on special offer this week and it also features in the training tournamets.

Training Tournaments

This week's training tournaments feature the French Defence, and the basic positions in the Classical and Tarrasch Variations:

Sunday February 9th at 5pm UK Time: ZOOM Scandinavian with 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qd6 4.d4 Nf6 5.Nf3 g6

Sunday February 9th at 5pm UK Time: ZOOM Scandinavian with 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.d4 Nc6

My Upcoming Events

Here's my schedule over the coming months, though it is subject to change. I often don't know until fairly late in the day:

February 16-27, 2025: World Senior Team Championship
I've accepted a place in the 50+ second team which means I'll play a much stronger field than on bottom board of the first team. Although this diminishes my chances of winning a medal I'm looking forward to the challenge.

April 4-14 2025: European Senior Team Championship

I finally got confirmation that I'll be in the 50+ 1st team, apparently on board 3 of a team that includes Michael Adams, John Emms, myself, Steve Dishman and Graeme Buckley.

July 31st - 10th August 2025: British Championships
These have now been confirmed for Liverpool on these dates, you can find details here. If I get invited to play in the main Championships, I'll probably accept. Otherwise I'm eligible for both the 50+ and 65+ sections, and should have a chance of doing well in either.

There will probably be at least one or two events between April and the end of July, it's important to keep playing in order to maintain good form.

Twitch Channel

My new Twitch channel has new shows every Monday ('Chess Questions Answered), the Webinar on training tournaments and games is up on Fridays and another weekly coming soon. Please follow it if you'd like to get updates etc, all the shows will be available to Premium members in the Tiger Chess members area, even when they are no longer available on Twitch.

Have a good weekend.

Nigel

TIGER CHESS THEMED TRAINING TOURNAMENTS, TOURNAMENTS, TRAINING

Can Shogi Help Your Chess?

I've recently being learning the Japanese game of Shogi, along with my wife. We were given a set as a Christmas present and both found it fascinating. Some of the pieces move similarly to Western chess, but there are also huge differences. I am struggling with fluently recognizing the pieces, but I guess this is a question of time.

One interesting question is whether playing Shogi can help chess players improve? Alexander Nikitin also played Go with the young Garry Kasparov and claimed it played an important role in his understanding of strategy. An interesting analogy is that there are reported benefits to learning a second language, in that it can help improve someone's first language. A second language particularly targets areas such as reading, speaking and expressing ideas, as well as having more general benefits on memory, concentration and problem solving. This would make an interesting case for secondary board games helping your chess, there will be more general benefits as well as some that are specific to board game thinking.

Have I experience any benefit from Shogi as yet? It's too early to say, and learning Shogi has coincided with other measures I've been taking. My concentration seems have improved lately after having had it waver over recent years. It's a work in progress and I'm a self-reporting sample of one, but I think Shogi worth trying.

If you're interested in learning Shogi I suggest joining Lishogi.org, a Shogi version of Lichess.org. I've been diving into the tsume section with unspectacular results, but like everything it's a question of practice.

Training Tournaments

This week's training tournaments feature the Dutch Defence with 3.e3 and then 3...e6 or 3...g6:

Sunday January 26th at 5pm UK Time: Dutch with 1.d4 f5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3 e6

Sunday January 26th at 6.15pm UK Time: Dutch with 1.d4 f5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3 g6

My Upcoming Events

Here's my schedule over the coming months, though it is subject to change. I often don't know until fairly late in the day:

January 26th: Stockport Rapidplay
I've played in this event with some regularity, so probably I'll go for it again. You can find details here.

February 16-27, 2025: World Senior Team Championship
I've accepted a place in the 50+ second team which means I'll play a much stronger field than on bottom board of the first team. Although this diminishes my chances of winning a medal I'm looking forward to the challenge.

July/August 2025: British Championships
Will these be held in Liverpool next year or maybe Torquay? I've heard rumours about both venues, if they're held in Liverpool I'd probably go for the 50+ event.

I'm still waiting to get a firm offer to play in the European Senior Team Championships (Poland, April 4-14). I've heard that I'll be offered a place in the 50+ first time, which I'll take if it happens in the next day or two.

Meanwhile I missed out on these two events, both of which I'd have liked to play in if there was time:

January 24-31, 2025: HIT Open in Nova Gorica: Details can be found here.

February 5-10, 2025: Senta, Hotel Fantastico: Details can be found here.

Twitch Channel

My new Twitch channel has new shows every Monday ('Chess Questions Answered) and other weekly coming soon. Please follow it if you'd like to get updates etc, all the shows will be available to Premium members in the Tiger Chess members area, even when they are no longer available on Twitch.

Have a good weekend.

Nigel

COACHING, OPENINGS, TOURNAMENTS, TRAINING

CHOOSING OPENINGS FOR DIFFERENT OCCASIONS

The issue I want to discuss this week is in choosing openings for different opponents. This tends to be a relatively minor issue for most players because the game is likely to leave the book early on. For stronger players, let's say over 2,000 Elo, it starts to become more problematic. Will an opponent be prepared for your usual choices? Will you be playing into their hands with regard to the type of position you reach? Are you worried that the game will become dull or drawish, when you'd really like to play for a win?

There's no easy or one dimensional answer, but I can offer the following guidelines:

First and foremost it's good to have a decent opening repertoire, something you like and understand, that contains robust lines and gives you plenty of alternative options. If your repertoire depends on a single sharp line, what will you do if you lose confidence in this line? Will you also need to study your openings on an ongoing basis? Do you have time to do this? Most main line openings are suitable, and it's probably best to steer clear of very sharp ones.

Secondly you should consider the relative strength of your opponent. If they are a better player it makes sense to minimize the importance of their improvisational skills by playing as many moves of theory as you can. On the other hand you might want to throw weaker players on their own resources, unless you know that they have poor theoretical knowledge. 

A third consideration is whether an opening should be chosen because it is more likely to produce a desired result, either a win or a draw. This one is a particular minefield because you can end up playing something you don't know. Playing for a draw is dangerous because it can put you in a defensive frame of mind, playing for a win can cause you to throw caution to the wind when that is what is required. The best approach that I know of is to simply keep playing, and hopefully your main repertoire will give you some small imbalances to work with.

The openings I recommend at Tiger Chess tend to be suitable for most amateur players, and a suped up version of these lines should be good enough for most professionals. There are other options too, but I give the best lines I know of in terms of simplicity and economy.

Training Tournaments

This week's training tournaments return to the King's Indian Petrosian, which is a great line for learning more about pawn structures with a closed centre:

Sunday January 12th at 5pm UK Time: King's Indian Petrosian with 7...a5

Sunday January 12th at 6.15pm UK Time: King's Indian Petrosian with 7...Nbd7

My Upcoming Events

Here's my schedule over the coming months, though it is subject to change. I often don't know until fairly late in the day:

January 17-19: Huddersfield 4NCL Congress
I really enjoy the 4NCL Congresses as they're played under excellent conditions in nice hotels. This is the first one in Huddersfield, you can find details here.

January 27th: Stockport Rapidplay
I've played in this event with some regularity, so probably I'll go for it again. You can find details here.

February 16-27, 2025: World Senior Team Championship
I've accepted a place in the 50+ second team which means I'll play a much stronger field than on bottom board of the first team. Although this diminishes my chances of winning a medal I'm looking forward to the challenge.

July/August 2025: British Championships
Will these be held in Liverpool next year or maybe Torquay? I've heard rumours about both venues, if they're held in Liverpool I'd probably go for the 50+ event.

I've been waiting to hear about the selections for the European Senior Team Championships (Poland, April 4-14) in which I've said I'll play in any team and on any board. I guess I'll find out fairly soon, hopefully I'll be picked as I've been holding these dates open for a long time, in fact since July 23rd 2024!

Regretfully I've had to pass on two events in Slovenia and Serbia:

January 24-31, 2025: HIT Open in Nova Gorica: Details can be found here.

February 5-10, 2025: Senta, Hotel Fantastico: Details can be found here.

Twitch Channel

Last Monday I made the first show for my new Twitch channel in which I gave my view on the Scotch Opening, next Monday I'll be discussing the merits of the English Opening. Please follow it if you'd like to get updates etc, all the shows will be available to Premium members in the Tiger Chess members area even when they are no longer available on Twitch.

Have a good weekend.

Nigel

PSYCHOLOGY, TOURNAMENTS, TRAINING

HOW TO HANDLE PRESSURE

The finish to the Ding - Gukesh match brought this topic to mind, Ding blundered horribly to lose a 'drawn' endgame. He was under massive pressure, representing his country and with the eyes of the World upon him, and it has become apparent that he is a psychologically delicate individual. How can we handle such pressure and should we even want to?

Several of the greatest champions in history have struggle with pressure, for example Magnus Carlsen decided he had had enough and simply bowed out of his World Championship defence. Fischer too seemed unwilling to defend the title, suggesting conditions that nobody would agree to. Other players have also wilted under the strain of competitive chess, let alone playing a World Championship match under the watchful gaze of millions of people.

How can you handle such pressure? I think it's significant that Gukesh has mentioned that he practices yoga and meditation as part of his daily routine, and he also brought a mental coach (Paddy Upton) along as part of his team. I have long believed in such practices and would credit chi kung, tai chi and meditation as having saved me during a difficult period of my life. There are many different forms of mental conditioning available which would likely suit different people. I strongly recommend looking around for one that you like and building a regular practice.

Training Tournaments

The training tournaments this week are in positions from the French Defence and Building an Opening Repertoire courses as follows:

Sunday December 15th at 5pm UK Time: French Advance with 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5

Sunday December 15th at 6.15pm UK Time: French Exchange with 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 exd5

Upcoming Events

Here's my schedule over the coming months, though it is subject to change. I often don't know until fairly late in the day. It's with some regret that I won't be playing in the HIT Open this coming year (January 24th to 31st 2025) but my schedule is already quite busy. It's a really good and well organized event that I warmly recommend.

January 17-19: Huddersfield 4NCL Congress
I really enjoy the 4NCL Congresses as they're played under excellent conditions in nice hotels. This is the first one in Huddersfield, you can find details here.

January 27th: Stockport Rapidplay
I've played in this event with some regularity, so probably I'll go for it again. You can find details here.

February 16-27, 2025: World Senior Team Championship
I've accepted a place in the 50+ second team which means I'll play a much stronger field than on bottom board of the first team. Although this diminishes my chances of winning a medal I'm looking forward to the challenge.

July/August 2025: British Championships
Will these be held in Liverpool next year? There's a rumour on Tim Spanton's blog that they would be. I think I might go for the 50+ event if this is the case.

I am still hoping to play in the European Senior Team Championships (Walbrzych, Poland, April 4-14) in which I've said I'll play in any team and on any board. The details have yet to be confirmed, but when they are the teams will be selected.

Twitch Channel

I'm setting up a new Twitch channel on which I'm planning to run shows a couple of times a week. Please follow it if you'd like to get updates etc.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Nigel

BUILDING AN OPENING REPERTOIRE, OPENINGS, TOURNAMENTS, TRAINING

HOW MANY OPENINGS SHOULD YOU PLAY?

Something I've often thought about is the width of an opening repertoire. At amateur level it's unusual to find anyone who knows anything really well, top players seem to know and play almost everything.

Should we try to emulate what top players do? Frankly I don't think so because we don't need to. Being too predictable can be fatal at the top level where your opponents can be armed with super-computers and seconds. It's different for amateurs because we will not be facing such a high level of preparation and will be able to win quite drawish positions.

So for most of us I think that having a single set of openings is plenty, assuming that we know them really well. It's important that they should be sound and yet have enough scope to outplay our opponents. Preparing more openings than that is an unproductive use of time which might be better spent on endgames.

What about older GMs who frequently play in weekend events? In my case I think that a single set of openings with White is fine but with Black I tend to think that I need two. One would be for sheer solidity when meeting players of a similar or higher rating to mine, a second would be for when I play lower rated players and really need to avoid early simplification.

One final thought is to always consider the Flank Openings when choosing your defence against 1.d4. The Gruenfeld (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5) and Nimzo (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4) are great until your opponent avoids them with 1.c4 or 1.Nf3. In such cases you need something extra, which can mean a lot more work.

Training Tournaments

This week's training tournaments feature more lines from the Building an Opening Repertoire course, this time from White's perspective:

Sunday November 24th at 5pm UK Time: Colle vs KID with 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.e3 Bg7

Sunday November 24th at 6.15pm UK Time: Colle vs Gruenfeld with 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.e3 d5

Upcoming Events

Here's my schedule over the coming months, though it is subject to change. I often don't know until fairly late in the day.

December 1, 2024: Bolton Rapid Play
A fairly local event for me, so I'll be playing to to get some practice. Details can be found here.

December 7, 2024: Huddersfield Chess Club Seminar
I've run a number of seminars at this great club, this is the first since before COVID. Their website is here.

January 17-19: Huddersfield 4NCL Congress
 I really enjoy the 4NCL Congresses as they're played under excellent conditions in nice hotels. This is the first one in Huddersfield, you can find details here.

January 27th: Stockport Rapidplay
I've played in this event with some regularity, so probably I'll go for it again. You can find details here.

February 16-27, 2025: World Senior Team Championship
I've accepted a place in the 50+ second team which means I'll play a much stronger field than on bottom board of the first team. Although this diminishes my chances of winning a medal I'm looking forward to the challenge.

July/August 2025: British Championships
Will these be held in Liverpool next year? There's a rumour on Tim Spanton's blog that they would be. I think I might go for the 50+ event if this is the case.

I'm hopeful that I'll get to play in the European Senior Team Championships (Walbrzych, Poland, April 4-14) in which I've said I'll play in any team and on any board.

Have a great weekend!

Nigel

BUILDING AN OPENING REPERTOIRE, COACHING, OPENINGS, TOURNAMENTS, TRAINING, WHITE 1.d2-d4 REPERTOIRE

HOW TO STUDY CHESS VIDEOS

During this week's webinar I was asked how many times it's good to watch a chess opening video. I would say that the answer is rather nuanced.

To learn openings I recommend a combination of watching videos, training games and playing around with any pgn file to look for alternatives and see what the engine says. The amount of time used on these three approaches will vary from person to person and how much time they have available.

Personally I tend to watch videos, often whilst doing some other activity such as using a stationary exercise bike. I would like to spend time examining the variations with an engine and playing through them on a real chess board, unfortunately it's difficult to find time. As for training games, this tends to be my lowest priority, but I've put it there because I'd need both time and a suitable partner. In the past I've tested openings in correspondence games but tend to lose interest once the opening stage is over.

I would not recommend my approach to anybody else, I think we all have to find our own way. A good way to start is by watching Tiger Chess material and then play in the Tiger Chess training tournaments on Lichess.

Training Tournaments

This week's training tournaments will feature the Colle, which appears in both the Building an Opening Repertoire course and the White 1.d4 Repertoire:

Sunday November 10th at 5pm UK Time: Colle with 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.e3 c5

Sunday November 10th at 6.15pm UK Time: Colle with 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.e3 b6

Upcoming Events

Here's my approximate schedule over the coming months, subject to change! I often don't know until fairly late in the day.

December 1, 2024: Bolton Rapid Play
A fairly local event for me, so I'll be playing to to get some practice. Details can be found here.

December 7, 2024: Huddersfield Chess Club Seminar
I've run a number of seminars at this great club, this is the first since before COVID. Their website is here.

January 17-19: Huddersfield 4NCL Congress
I really enjoy the 4NCL Congresses as they're played under excellent conditions in nice hotels. This is the first one in Huddersfield, you can find details here.

January 27th: Stockport Rapidplay
I've played in this event with some regularity, so probably I'll go for it again. You can find details here.

February 16-27, 2025: World Senior Team Championship
I've accepted a place in the 50+ second team which means I'll play a much stronger field than on bottom board of the first team. Although this diminishes my chances of winning a medal I'm looking forward to the challenge.

July/August 2025: British Championships
Will these be held in Liverpool next year? There's a rumour on Tim Spanton's blog that they would be. I think I might go for the 50+ event if this is the case.

I'm hopeful that I'll get to play in the European Senior Team Championships (Walbrzych, Poland, April 4-14) in which I've said I'll play in any team and on any board.

Hope you have a great weekend! Meanwhile please note that there are discounts on my Vimeo videos listed in my newsletter.

Nigel

COACHING, HOW TO, TIGER CHESS THEMED TRAINING TOURNAMENTS, TOURNAMENTS, TRAINING

HOW MUCH CHESS SHOULD YOU PLAY

A question I'm often asked is how much chess someone should play in order to stay in practice. Generally speaking I suggest trying to play at least 50 classical games per annum, though for many amateurs even this many is going to be difficult to achieve.

Can you substitute online blitz and rapid play events for these classical games? To some extent you can, but I would suggest rationing faster games if being good at longer time limits is the goal. If winning on time is just as good as forcing your opponent's resignation, it can lead to playing fast/tricky moves rather than good ones.

The top players in the World are good at every time limit because their high level of skill will always be relevant. It's the development of such skill that the issue arises, it's important to learn to do things well before doing them faster.

Training Tournaments
 

This week's training tournaments will feature the French Defence, which is a mainstay of my opening recommendations because of its quality, teaching value and the ease with which it can be learned. The variations featured are the Classical (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6) and the Tarrasch with 3...c5 (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 c5):

Sunday November 3rd at 5pm UK Time: French Classical with 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 

Sunday November 3rd at 6.15pm French Tarrasch with 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 c5

Upcoming Events

Here's my approximate schedule over the coming months, subject to change! I often don't know until fairly late in the day.

December 1, 2024: Bolton Rapid Play

A fairly local event for me, so I'll be playing to to get some practice. Details can be found here.

December 7, 2024: Huddersfield Chess Club Seminar

I've run a number of seminars at this great club, this is the first since before COVID. Their website is here.

January 17-19: Huddersfield 4NCL Congress

I really enjoy the 4NCL Congresses as they're played under excellent conditions in nice hotels. This is the first one in Huddersfield, you can find details here.

January 27th: Stockport Rapidplay

I've played in this event with some regularity, so probably I'll go for it again. You can find details here.

February 16-27, 2025: World Senior Team Championship

I've accepted a place in the 50+ second team which means I'll play a much stronger field than on bottom board of the first team. Although this diminishes my chances of winning a medal I'm looking forward to the challenge.

July/August 2025: British Championships

Will these be held in Liverpool next year? There's a rumour on Tim Spanton's blog that they would be. I think I might go for the 50+ event if this is the case.

I'm hopeful that I'll get to play in the European Senior Team Championships (Walbrzych, Poland, April 4-14) in which I've said I'll play in any team and on any board.


Hope you have a great weekend!

Nigel

OPENINGS, TOURNAMENTS, TRAINING

A QUESTION OF CONFIDENCE

Players can often have a crisis of confidence with their chess, not feeling 'prepared' being a primary symptom. This is especially the case with those who are returning to the game after a long layoff, both opening theory and the ways it might be studied have changed considerably, largely due to the advent of computer databases and increasingly powerful engines.

How can this be handled? Really I believe there is only one way, to know what you are doing more thoroughly than your opponents. Yet this knowledge can take different forms, you either out-prepare people with your own computer analysis or you develop a deeper understanding of the plans and ideas.

My approach with students has been to help them develop a better understanding, I believe this will carry over into different parts of the game. For this reason I developed ideas based opening repertoires with minimal theory, then coupled this with a recommendation to play what you learn to develop fluency. The training tournaments I run on Lichess can be part of this process.

Training Tournaments

This week's training tournaments are in the Dutch Defence and use my repertoire recommendation of 1.d4 f5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3:

Sunday October 13th at 5pm UK Time: Dutch Defence with 1.d4 f5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3 e6

Sunday October 13th at 6.15pm UK Time: Dutch Defence with 1.d4 f5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3 g6

Upcoming Events

Here's my approximate schedule over the coming months, subject to change! I often don't know until fairly late in the day.

October 25-27, 2024: Scarborough Congress

This one of the UK's most prestigious congresses, the sections include a 'foundation' tournament and a junior event. Click here for details.

December 1, 2024: Bolton Rapid Play

A fairly local event for me, so I'll be playing to to get some practice. Details can be found here.

December 7, 2024: Huddersfield Chess Club Seminar

I've run a number of seminars at this great club, this is the first since before COVID. Their website is here.

February 18-23, 2025: Isle of Wight International

I've been invited to play in this one but will have to pull out if I get invited to the World Senior Teams. It's a new event but the organizers seem to be on the ball. You can find details here.

July/August 2025: British Championships

Will these be held in Liverpool next year? Last week I linked to the rumour on Tim Spanton's page that they would be. I would be using my Metro senior travel card (!) to get there and might go for the 50+ event.

I'm also still hoping to be invited to the World Senior Team Championships (Prague, February 16 to 27, 2025) and/or the European Senior Team Championships (Walbrzych, Poland, April 4-14). I should find out about these soon.

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See you next week, I'm planning to post here on a regular basis.

Nigel Davies