Saturday, November 11, 2006

Initial thoughts

Some random thoughts that will be organized more cohesively in the future.

What makes a player's OTB rating surge and go through the roof in an efficient way?
  • must be mentally and physically fit
  • must have excellent OTB management skills
  • must study and apply material that occurs frequently OTB
  • must have fun
A few words about OTB management skills; these include time management, stress management, fatigue management, clear understanding of USCF rules, and even the training that enables a player to peak at the right time for a series of OTB games. Clearly, these skills can potentially add hundreds of rating points to a class player. I am banking on a +450 from OTB skills and another +450 from study to achieve a USCF rating of 2200.

2 comments:

katar said...

i don't think OTB skills translate into rating points, esp. not 450...

mainly "otb skills" cut down on blunders. including time-trouble blunders.

no amt of OTB skillz can help you spot a mate in 3 or proper technique in a R+P endgame for example.

Efficient Chess said...

it may depend on the player. i am assuming that i have some average ability to spot tactics and some endgame technique already.

a player that consistently run into time trouble game after game may be able to raise his rating by say 200 points just by learning how to manage time better.

similiarly, a player who keeps thinking about a previous brilliant move he could have made may miss simple tactics even though he had gone through extensive tactics training. this may be worth say 50~100 rating points.

i think you have a good point. it may be possible for a player to train so much that despite time trouble, despite difficult psychological stress, he can still recognize tactics instantly but that will probably require much more work and will take away the "fun" for me.