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Robin Said

Quote:thing you can't prepare for is

What I would say is that you can't FULLY prepare: while theory is no substitute for experience however there is no doubt that being prepared in the sense of knowing what to expect gives you the mental tools to deal with it. The sort of preparation I am thinking about is not about chess specific stuff (learning more endings or opening lines) but more about dealing with this sort of intense event.

I suspect one problem that players have is that their experience tends to be of playing in either 1 day junior thrash chess and weekend congresses in which the emphasis is on winning each game. I suspect to do better at the higher level you need to learn to be hard to beat: able to stay in the game until your chance arises.

I have tried to to explain to J. that many position you simply are not good enough to be 100% sure you have seen all the options and what you need to do, a bit like in poker is to judge the risk you are taking - both in terms of the position and your view of your opponent's capabilities.

It might be an idea that a hand book is developed that captures people's experiences and contains tips and advise.

One thing that makes sense to me is that the coach that goes gets time with the players individually in advance so that he/she can get to know them and their style of play. This could be at existing congresses or perhaps a training event can be held?

Mike wrote,

Quote:It might be an idea that a hand book is developed that captures people's experiences and contains tips and advise.

A brammer of an idea! Mike, will be in touch with you to talk this over.

One thing that would definitely help all round is good internet access so that the player's coach in Scotland is able to support them at events. This is not to detract in any way from guys like Alan who are excellent but every piece of help from home is wonderful for players confidence as they start focusing on the next round. I don't just mean direct links with their student but with Alan too in order to give him every piece of detailed support possible,

Robin.

Mike Scott Wrote:It might be an idea that a hand book is developed that captures people's experiences and contains tips and advise.

See a couple of the later chapters in "Play Better Chess" by Leonard Barden, which are exactly this. It is a mystery to me why this book is out of print, but you can usually pick it up for little more than postage costs on Amazon.

See this link for those who don't know who Leonard is, or why his writing on such a subject should be held in high regard:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Barden#Role_in_.22English_Chess_Explosion.22">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Ba ... plosion.22</a><!-- m -->

Tough day again out here, I'm afraid. Anna played her second good game in a row and had the better of a draw as Black, but the rest of the squad's results didn't really do them justice. There were some good performances (I'll single out Murad being one of the last finished and coming close to a draw and Andrew putting up a good fight against the competition's top seed, among others), and the team morale is still high. Tomorrow is another day...

Weather's fantastic, which helps a little. Thanks again to everyone for the support.

Tonight's coaching session for the under 16 boys should be interesting. Nihad has white against Ian in round 3.

Very strong game by Murad yesterday!

[pgn][Event "European Youth Chess Championship B12"]
[Site "Prague, Top Hotel Prague"]
[Date "2012.08.17"]
[Round "1.47"]
[White "Dreisler, Tobias"]
[Black "Abdulla, Murad"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B78"]
[WhiteElo "1861"]
[PlyCount "66"]
[EventDate "2012.08.17"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. Be3 Bg7 7. f3 O-O 8. Qd2
Nc6 9. Bc4 Bd7 10. O-O-O Rc8 11. Bb3 Nxd4 12. Bxd4 b5 13. h4 a5 14. a4 b4 15.
Nd5 Nxd5 16. Bxg7 Kxg7 17. Qxd5 Rc5 18. Qd4+ f6 19. h5 g5 20. f4 gxf4 21. Qf2
Qe8 22. Qxf4 Bxa4 23. Rd3 Bxb3 24. Rxb3 Kh8 25. g4 Qf7 26. Kb1 Qc4 27. Rh2 a4
28. Rg3 Rg8 29. Rf2 a3 30. bxa3 bxa3 31. Rxa3 Rb8+ 32. Kc1 Qb4 33. Rb3 Qxb3 0-1[/pgn]

Also here is Anna's complete game for those who were wondering how it ended:

[pgn][Event "European Youth Chess Championship G12"]
[Site "Prague, Top Hotel Prague"]
[Date "2012.08.17"]
[Round "1.4"]
[White "Milton, Anna"]
[Black "Bychkova, Alina"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D31"]
[WhiteElo "1514"]
[BlackElo "1895"]
[PlyCount "106"]
[EventDate "2012.08.17"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 c6 4. Nf3 dxc4 5. a4 Bb4 6. Bd2 b5 7. axb5 Bxc3 8.
Bxc3 cxb5 9. d5 Nf6 10. dxe6 Qxd1+ 11. Rxd1 fxe6 12. g3 Bb7 13. Bh3 Bd5 14. O-O
Nc6 15. Rfe1 Nd8 16. Bxf6 gxf6 17. Nd4 Rb8 18. e4 Ba8 19. Nxe6 Nxe6 20. Bxe6
Ke7 21. Bd5 Rhd8 22. Rd4 Rb6 23. Red1 Bxd5 24. exd5 Rbd6 25. f4 a5 26. Kf2 a4
27. g4 Ra8 28. Ra1 Rda6 29. Rb1 Kd6 30. g5 Kc5 31. Rbd1 fxg5 32. fxg5 Rd8 33.
Ke3 a3 34. bxa3 Rxa3+ 35. Kf4 Rh3 36. R4d2 c3 37. Rc2 Rxd5 38. Re1 Rh4+ 39. Kg3
Rc4 40. h4 Rd3+ 41. Kg2 Rd2+ 42. Rxd2 cxd2 43. Rd1 Rd4 44. h5 Kc4 45. Kf2 Kc3
46. g6 hxg6 47. hxg6 Kc2 48. g7 Rd8 49. Rg1 d1=Q 50. g8=Q Rxg8 51. Rxg8 Qd4+
52. Ke1 Qh4+ 53. Kf1 Qc4+ 0-1[/pgn]

I've got a feeling that today's going to be good day for results. So far wins for Kai and McClement. Keep them coming!

Just back from AGM. Five and a half out of six so far today. And yes, I am claiming Alice's bye as a win!

Great set of results. To be honest I was a bit concerned for Carl - a bye is great but floats you up the draw. Brilliant draw! Well done to Ian: that must have been really tough.

Rather better news to report today!

The joke early in the morning was that Alice's bye and Ian and Nihad's fixture meant that today was already our highest-scoring day, but we surpassed that mark with considerable ease. Liam and Kai won very smoothly to get off the mark, while Vagif played well and had much the better of his draw. Andrew was all set to get his grind on when his opponent flung a piece in a queen and knight ending (one of those Nd4 Qxd4 Qxd4 Nxe2+ thank you very much efforts). Murad continued his excellent form with a very good win. Third round in a row when one of the girls drew an opposite-coloured bishop ending, which Ali achieved from the numerically inferior side with considerable ease. Carl did very well to hold out in the day's longest game with some neat tricks in the end, despite being under pressure almost throughout. Nihad and Ian played out a complex game, with Ian sharper at the critical moment. Hamish played a decent game, with the unfortunate exception of a couple of tactical slips which cost him the point, while Anna was ground down over a difficult few hours. Alexander had the better of his opponent throughout much of the game and has been producing some good stuff here. Everyone seems to have settled well into the tournament now and spirits are high.

Yesterday's morale-boosting game of football in the dark (seriously, actually in the dark: got quite difficult to tell who everyone was; Alexander and Murad in particular are indistinguishable from 10 yards in poor lighting, which would have been fine if they hadn't been on different teams) obviously did the trick. In case anyone's wondering, Alan's team beat mine 12-11, and it turned out that my RVP-like striking, Alice Lampard's committed bustling and the Beckenbauer-like authority of Alexander's dad James was no match for Nihad's incredibly greedy but extremely effective poaching, Alexander 'The Cat' Bond's Gianluigi Buffon impression and Ian 'Paul Scholes' McDonald's late long-range winner.

All having a good time. So far we still haven't really had anything go wrong, which presumably means that when it does it will be utterly disastrous, but I live in hope. (Presumably we're going to end up flying into Murmansk on Sunday night or something.)