Anyone here who plays chess regularly at their local clubs, I'd appreciate some basic tips on how to approach OTB play as opposed to C.C.
I used to play OTB in a local juniors club, but that was over 20 years ago! Since then it's been the odd game against mates & games here.
I'm planning on joining my local club when play starts in September & I'll probably be an "average" player at best, looking at some of the club players' ratings going from ECF 60-164.
At the moment I'm tactics training, but rarely sit & play with an actual board & pieces.
What key differences can I expect when I play at club level & how should I best prepare?
Thanks in advance
🙂
Originally posted by SquelchbelchKey differences!
Anyone here who plays chess regularly at their local clubs, I'd appreciate some basic tips on how to approach OTB play as opposed to C.C.
I used to play OTB in a local juniors club, but that was over 20 years ago! Since then it's been the odd game against mates & games here.
I'm planning on joining my local club when play starts in September & I'll ...[text shortened]... I expect when I play at club level & how should I best prepare?
Thanks in advance
🙂
(1) No books;
(2) No databases;
(3) Definately no engines;
(4) Limited time.
So not only must you be OK on tactics and endgames but you need to know your openings well as you cannot look them up.
If in CC you are used to using a DB do you really understand the purpose behind the opening. You need to.
Although an online game played home alone can be nerve racking, it's absolutely nothing compared to sitting face to face against an opponent!
Besides all the purely chess related things mentioned by DF, expect
strong emotions like tension, nerves, doubt, sadness, relief, joy, disappointment etc etc
What I found is that playing here has severely damaged my ability to calculate properly otb. So you'll find that when you are trying to visualise a position a few moves down the line you'll be wishing you were allowed an analysis board. It might be worth your while following the old advice from Kotov's Think Like a Grandmaster and practicing calculating some positions from some annotated games and checking what you work out against the annotations (or non-annotated games and use an engine to check your calculations). CC chess is a bit like doing arithmetic on paper, otb chess is a test of mental arithmetic - so you need to practice that.
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A solid openings repertoire is a must.
play the board "and" the opponent, but look only at the board. do not let anything else distract you. this is especially true if there are other games nearby. the sound of pieces shuffling and clocks ticking can be really annoying. usually there is always at least one game where both players are in time trouble and slamming the clocks like madmen.
I'm ok with my repertoire I think.
I struggle on blitz - 5 mins is a nightmare, 10 mins is a bit better.
With my CC games here, I generally try to look at 2 or 3 candidate moves & cater for:
My best move
His best response
My best follow-up.
And that's it.
I'm thinking about getting Sotlis' How to Choose a Chess Move but have plenty of books as it is!
As DF mentioned I do often use books & sometimes an online db so I'm worried about getting taken out of book, but as I say I think I have a reasonably sound OTB repertoire.
The db generally gets booted-up when I go into an opening that either has multiple lines or is one I'm not very familiar with.
Most of my play is tactics-heavy so I've largely ignored studying strategy.
Within reason I definately play better the longer the time limit. I'm guessing most friendly club games are 30 mins. Is that what you guys find?
- Joined
- 12 Aug 06
- Moves
- 5380
How can you decide your best move without consulting strategy? In blitz games strategy is useless, so if you are a tactical player you should excel at strategy. Just keep up and do not give up, and your blitz games will change. 5 minute games are tricky. Usually when I lose at 5 minute games it is because I treated it as if it is a bullet game (1 minute each). You will learn instinctively how to use your time efficiently as you play games. For now, simply do not care about your results. Also, computer blitz games and OTB blitz play are different as you have to spend additional time slamming the clock.
As for longer games such as 30 min, your overall game should be good. If you win easily, this does not mean you are a good player, but your opponent is a bad player (pessimism is key to chess improvement).
Well, when I say I don't study strategy I know the basics.
Rooks on open or 1/2 open files
Good vs bad bishops
Knight outposts on the 5th rank
Active squares for pieces
Basics of pawn structure
Positional imbalances
It's just that I think that tactics should take precedence for me.
By the way, what is the most common time control for friendly club games?
Originally posted by anthiasOr pull a kasparov and stare ... hard.
A solid openings repertoire is a must.
play the board "and" the opponent, but look only at the board. do not let anything else distract you. this is especially true if there are other games nearby. the sound of pieces shuffling and clocks ticking can be really annoying. usually there is always at least one game where both players are in time trouble and slamming the clocks like madmen.
Originally posted by SquelchbelchI can't imagine anyone sitting at a chess board that looks like a serial killer 😛. Except for every guy tal played against because by the end of the game they wanted to break the guy's smile right off!
Well I'm 6'2", 15 stone & look like I could be a serial killer.
Maybe I should use the chess for tigers approach & psyche 'em out - play the man, not the board😛
Originally posted by SquelchbelchI've a feeling that the division between tactics and strategy has more to do with making the organisation of the chapters in chess books easier than any reality on the chess board. What plans you can adopt (strategy) are totally dependent on the concrete position (tactics) and what manoeuvres (tactics) you want to make are determined by your plans (strategy). If your opponent does something which allows you to fork their king and queen then you make the move because you plan to swap a knight for their queen, if they allow you to occupy a file then you put a rook along it to get pressure and control squares along that file so you can put your pieces on it - in both cases what you are doing is moving your pieces around to get some sort of concrete advantage. Strategy is just tactics slowed down where you can't calculate the consequences of what you are doing to as great a precision.
Well, when I say I don't study strategy I know the basics.
Rooks on open or 1/2 open files
Good vs bad bishops
Knight outposts on the 5th rank
Active squares for pieces
Basics of pawn structure
Positional imbalances
It's just that I think that tactics should take precedence for me.
By the way, what is the most common time control for friendly club games?
It varies, there's quite a lot of blitz played as you can get quite a few games in in an evening, rapid play is also common (half an hour each), people will quite happily play without clocks and you'll find some people want an hour or more a side. It depends more on the people at the club and what the culture is there.
Originally posted by SquelchbelchKey differences are that people will probably laugh at you first. Newcomers will always be laughed at. Unless you are 15-30 y.o female, in which case your duty is to PM me.
Anyone here who plays chess regularly at their local clubs, I'd appreciate some basic tips on how to approach OTB play as opposed to C.C.
I used to play OTB in a local juniors club, but that was over 20 years ago! Since then it's been the odd game against mates & games here.
I'm planning on joining my local club when play starts in September & I'll ...[text shortened]... I expect when I play at club level & how should I best prepare?
Thanks in advance
🙂