I played in the USAT West this year and had a similar experience in a lot of ways - the rounds were too close together making it difficult to get food, there was no food within walking distance of the tournament itself, and I was exhausted by the end, blundering in the last round to somewhat spoil what would have otherwise been a reasonable tournament. The time control was G/90+30/s which is reasonably, except that five of my six games were over 50 moves, so I felt the strain of the faster time control. And the organizers didn't take advantage of this to space out the rounds to take advantage of the time control so that folks could get food more easily, hang out, etc.
That said, I personally don't think there's anything that feels the same as classical chess played OTB. When I play even serious games online I have trouble hitting the same level of focus as I do over the board. Of course, I've got the advantage of living in the SF Bay Area, where I can play a single game at a chess club on a Tuesday or a Friday night, which has the advantage of being less barbaric.
All very good points. Sort of keeps me from wanting to play in a bigger tournament hearing such things. I have a family. I don’t like being away from my wife and kids for any period of time really. The only weekend tournaments I get are usually one dayers where it’s game in 60 with 5 second delay. So you can get in 4 games in the day but it’s brutal if you run to time control each time with little break. And even then I only 2-3 of them in a year. I found my local club and grinding there weekly is really ideal for a family man. I can dedicate the one day a week evening on Wednesday’s to it. I don’t miss out on time with my kids as they go to bed shortly after the round starts. My wife and I get some free time from each other. It works much better.
I’d love to get in more games a year but with younger children it simply isn’t in the cards for me and I am ok with this. It sounds the same for you honestly Nate. I know you just had a new addition to your family and many congratulations for that. I remember these times well and they were not that long ago for me. Careful. You’ll blink and they will be in Highschool.
For me I’ll wait until my kids are older before I attempt these bigger / longer tournaments. My family far outweighs chess and those wonderful and endearing situations that come with a longer large tournament. I think you have found the same. I do want to say this still doesn’t mean we cannot reach our goals. Perhaps for you it means something different since you’re titled and have higher aspirations which garners a different caliber of tournament over local club play however it may be maintenance for you perhaps. Something to consider. I don’t know what the local club scene looks like in your area but at least worth investigating. Thanks for such a wonderful post and insights into what it looks like at some of these bigger tournaments.
I'm for shorter time controls but I think you're exagerrating about the game lengths being 5 or 6 hours. It's not really possible for a game at that time control to go more than about 4.5 hours.
Also, it used to be worse! They have been gradually moving in the right direction. Here's the flier for the 2000 USATE, when the time control was 50/2 SD/1, which really was six hours: https://x.com/boldmovebydan/status/1769343442599972881
Very relatable post! I would love to see a post on what you think would be an ideal tournament format, including all the non chess related variables, like venue and round start times.
I posted this in the chess book collectors group on Facebook:
"A while back, I realized I enjoy reading chess books and studying games more than actually playing chess—unless we’re talking meaningless online bullet games. Tournaments feel like hard work and stress, but it’s more than that. They cut into my study time, and when one’s coming up, I feel pressured to focus on 'useful' books—stuff to patch holes in my repertoire or sharpen my tactics—rather than just reading what I want for fun. I’d rather dive into whatever fascinates me without the guilt of 'should I be prepping instead?'
I suspect most of us in this group don’t play tournaments anymore—or if we do, it’s not with an improvement mindset. Of course, I’m sure there are exceptions! Curious what you all think.
Nate Solon recently wrote a great blog post about some of the downsides of tournament chess that really hit home for me. How do you balance playing (or not) with your love of chess books?"
There's absolutely no reason to believe that people who pressure themselves to focus on "useful" books before a tournament perform better than people who focus on what they find interesting. Chess doesn't work like that.
You are correct. But speaking for myself, I feel guilty if I am reading some 'fun' book when I know I have no idea what to do about blah blah variation. And I'm not alone. I agree though. It's rare that I lose a game because I didn't prepare. In fact, it often helps as I have a fresh head.
"If we had more tournaments that respected the work and family commitments of normal adults, ... it would open up chess tournaments to a whole different group of people. People who love chess, but aren’t willing to tolerate anything and everything to play in a chess tournament."
So totally true Nate. Thank you for articulating this so well. There are thousands of us looking for the old-fashioned (and probably mythical) wood-panelled club room where we can go to play a serious game, hang out with others who love chess or listen to a lecture from a master.
I am for longer time controls. When you say " When my opponents go into deep thinks, they often don’t end up making good decisions", what is cause and what is effect? If you think longer, you are probably in difficult situation, so of course the chances are higher you mess it up. shorter time control doesn't help here!
Good point with that statement to try to organize more tournaments for working people and parents - this really would open to new group of chess addicts.
I have been only to one classical format tournament and it was really short 30+30 - but 7 rounds in two days. For start it was not bad, but I was exhausted in the middle of tournament. Now I am planning to go to regular 6 days tournament with 9 rounds with format 60+30. I am really curious what feelings I will have to the end of tournament or what my exhaustion will be - I am planning to cycling to playing hall every day - the most important is to cycle back from playing hall to my room to clean my head with fresh air.
Didn't realize how lucky I was that I live a couple minutes away from my local chess club where I can play a rated classical game every week. I did my first weekend tournament for this first time this year and it was an extremely grueling experience. Didn't realize for many people that for many people these were their only opportunities to play OTB classical, with all of the travel costs and food/sleep sacrifices.
I'm mid round at a 4 hour, 5 round rapid tournament right now. This is the way. Cheaa is just a board game, I'd rather play a bunch of games and get on with my life than sit there for an hour waiting for my opponent to move a pawn. This is fun, and I'm looking for award to the next game.
This post is right on target. I played in the USATE once, over 30 years ago, and it was miserable (and I was in my 20s). To that point I had mostly played G/60 Friday night quads at a local club and what in Maryland were called tornados, which consisted of four rounds of G/60 on a Saturday. I thought this was great: everyone was focused, there was no standing around, and you could get in 3-4 rated games without wrecking your entire weekend.
I play online a lot and have wanted to get back into playing OTB, strive for a lifetime rating goal, etc., but even with the encouragement/shaming of episodic coaching, I don't do it. Why? Discomfort and opportunity cost.
I enjoy playing classical time controls most but I agree that the time control at USATE (and other tournaments) is really too long to cram 2 rounds in 1 day, especially for a tournament that is supposed to be largely a social event as well. Personally I would prefer 90+30 as it's a bit shorter overall and playing with 5 second delay in a classical game is honestly ridiculous and causes unnecessary stress and conflicts at the end of the game and approaching move 40.
This year during the tournament I also found myself wondering if people would prefer a change to the schedule with something like 1 round Friday evening, 2 rounds Saturday and Sunday, and 1 round on Monday? I suppose there would be some people for whom this would be more difficult, but most other tournaments in the US start Friday evening, and I know some people who arrived on Friday evening anyway. For the players I feel like this along with a shorter time control would be a much more relaxed schedule and would also take advantage of the extended Presidents' Day weekend. Anyway I would be interested to try this schedule and I'm curious if others would be too.
One of the most relatable chess articles I've read in a long time. I am planning on setting aside some time and money to play in the Princeton Open and the amount of time I have to sacrifice by not taking on freelance work, time away from fiance, and then time studying and prepping will be immense- and I don't even have kids!
I agree the time controls could be shorter and the days less grueling, but there is magic to these traditional tournaments too. I prefer the Action and G50 tournaments over at the Marshall but not everyone has access to those, and those can take up time too. But at least with those I can lick my wounds, study my games, and get back to the grind the next day.
I played in the USAT West this year and had a similar experience in a lot of ways - the rounds were too close together making it difficult to get food, there was no food within walking distance of the tournament itself, and I was exhausted by the end, blundering in the last round to somewhat spoil what would have otherwise been a reasonable tournament. The time control was G/90+30/s which is reasonably, except that five of my six games were over 50 moves, so I felt the strain of the faster time control. And the organizers didn't take advantage of this to space out the rounds to take advantage of the time control so that folks could get food more easily, hang out, etc.
That said, I personally don't think there's anything that feels the same as classical chess played OTB. When I play even serious games online I have trouble hitting the same level of focus as I do over the board. Of course, I've got the advantage of living in the SF Bay Area, where I can play a single game at a chess club on a Tuesday or a Friday night, which has the advantage of being less barbaric.
I think we could keep the same upsides of Classical OTB with moderately shorter time controls.
All very good points. Sort of keeps me from wanting to play in a bigger tournament hearing such things. I have a family. I don’t like being away from my wife and kids for any period of time really. The only weekend tournaments I get are usually one dayers where it’s game in 60 with 5 second delay. So you can get in 4 games in the day but it’s brutal if you run to time control each time with little break. And even then I only 2-3 of them in a year. I found my local club and grinding there weekly is really ideal for a family man. I can dedicate the one day a week evening on Wednesday’s to it. I don’t miss out on time with my kids as they go to bed shortly after the round starts. My wife and I get some free time from each other. It works much better.
I’d love to get in more games a year but with younger children it simply isn’t in the cards for me and I am ok with this. It sounds the same for you honestly Nate. I know you just had a new addition to your family and many congratulations for that. I remember these times well and they were not that long ago for me. Careful. You’ll blink and they will be in Highschool.
For me I’ll wait until my kids are older before I attempt these bigger / longer tournaments. My family far outweighs chess and those wonderful and endearing situations that come with a longer large tournament. I think you have found the same. I do want to say this still doesn’t mean we cannot reach our goals. Perhaps for you it means something different since you’re titled and have higher aspirations which garners a different caliber of tournament over local club play however it may be maintenance for you perhaps. Something to consider. I don’t know what the local club scene looks like in your area but at least worth investigating. Thanks for such a wonderful post and insights into what it looks like at some of these bigger tournaments.
I'm for shorter time controls but I think you're exagerrating about the game lengths being 5 or 6 hours. It's not really possible for a game at that time control to go more than about 4.5 hours.
Also, it used to be worse! They have been gradually moving in the right direction. Here's the flier for the 2000 USATE, when the time control was 50/2 SD/1, which really was six hours: https://x.com/boldmovebydan/status/1769343442599972881
Yeah you're right.
Very relatable post! I would love to see a post on what you think would be an ideal tournament format, including all the non chess related variables, like venue and round start times.
I posted this in the chess book collectors group on Facebook:
"A while back, I realized I enjoy reading chess books and studying games more than actually playing chess—unless we’re talking meaningless online bullet games. Tournaments feel like hard work and stress, but it’s more than that. They cut into my study time, and when one’s coming up, I feel pressured to focus on 'useful' books—stuff to patch holes in my repertoire or sharpen my tactics—rather than just reading what I want for fun. I’d rather dive into whatever fascinates me without the guilt of 'should I be prepping instead?'
I suspect most of us in this group don’t play tournaments anymore—or if we do, it’s not with an improvement mindset. Of course, I’m sure there are exceptions! Curious what you all think.
Nate Solon recently wrote a great blog post about some of the downsides of tournament chess that really hit home for me. How do you balance playing (or not) with your love of chess books?"
There's absolutely no reason to believe that people who pressure themselves to focus on "useful" books before a tournament perform better than people who focus on what they find interesting. Chess doesn't work like that.
You are correct. But speaking for myself, I feel guilty if I am reading some 'fun' book when I know I have no idea what to do about blah blah variation. And I'm not alone. I agree though. It's rare that I lose a game because I didn't prepare. In fact, it often helps as I have a fresh head.
I quite enjoy playing tournaments in the U.S., but I concede they do have many systemic problems that are well articulated here.
I think just pulling back a little on the crazy long time controls would help a lot.
"If we had more tournaments that respected the work and family commitments of normal adults, ... it would open up chess tournaments to a whole different group of people. People who love chess, but aren’t willing to tolerate anything and everything to play in a chess tournament."
So totally true Nate. Thank you for articulating this so well. There are thousands of us looking for the old-fashioned (and probably mythical) wood-panelled club room where we can go to play a serious game, hang out with others who love chess or listen to a lecture from a master.
The closest I can get to this in my rural area are online groups such as the lichess4545 league (https://www.lichess4545.com/team4545/) or the HCC (https://lichess.org/team/club-dechecs-de-hemmingford-chess-club). Not quite the same but if the goal is to play enjoyable classical chess groups like this are better than the typical OTB tournament.
I am for longer time controls. When you say " When my opponents go into deep thinks, they often don’t end up making good decisions", what is cause and what is effect? If you think longer, you are probably in difficult situation, so of course the chances are higher you mess it up. shorter time control doesn't help here!
Less time wouldn't help, but more time doesn't help much either.
Excellent post
Good point with that statement to try to organize more tournaments for working people and parents - this really would open to new group of chess addicts.
I have been only to one classical format tournament and it was really short 30+30 - but 7 rounds in two days. For start it was not bad, but I was exhausted in the middle of tournament. Now I am planning to go to regular 6 days tournament with 9 rounds with format 60+30. I am really curious what feelings I will have to the end of tournament or what my exhaustion will be - I am planning to cycling to playing hall every day - the most important is to cycle back from playing hall to my room to clean my head with fresh air.
Didn't realize how lucky I was that I live a couple minutes away from my local chess club where I can play a rated classical game every week. I did my first weekend tournament for this first time this year and it was an extremely grueling experience. Didn't realize for many people that for many people these were their only opportunities to play OTB classical, with all of the travel costs and food/sleep sacrifices.
I'm mid round at a 4 hour, 5 round rapid tournament right now. This is the way. Cheaa is just a board game, I'd rather play a bunch of games and get on with my life than sit there for an hour waiting for my opponent to move a pawn. This is fun, and I'm looking for award to the next game.
Agreed. Great article.
This post is right on target. I played in the USATE once, over 30 years ago, and it was miserable (and I was in my 20s). To that point I had mostly played G/60 Friday night quads at a local club and what in Maryland were called tornados, which consisted of four rounds of G/60 on a Saturday. I thought this was great: everyone was focused, there was no standing around, and you could get in 3-4 rated games without wrecking your entire weekend.
I play online a lot and have wanted to get back into playing OTB, strive for a lifetime rating goal, etc., but even with the encouragement/shaming of episodic coaching, I don't do it. Why? Discomfort and opportunity cost.
I enjoy playing classical time controls most but I agree that the time control at USATE (and other tournaments) is really too long to cram 2 rounds in 1 day, especially for a tournament that is supposed to be largely a social event as well. Personally I would prefer 90+30 as it's a bit shorter overall and playing with 5 second delay in a classical game is honestly ridiculous and causes unnecessary stress and conflicts at the end of the game and approaching move 40.
This year during the tournament I also found myself wondering if people would prefer a change to the schedule with something like 1 round Friday evening, 2 rounds Saturday and Sunday, and 1 round on Monday? I suppose there would be some people for whom this would be more difficult, but most other tournaments in the US start Friday evening, and I know some people who arrived on Friday evening anyway. For the players I feel like this along with a shorter time control would be a much more relaxed schedule and would also take advantage of the extended Presidents' Day weekend. Anyway I would be interested to try this schedule and I'm curious if others would be too.
One of the most relatable chess articles I've read in a long time. I am planning on setting aside some time and money to play in the Princeton Open and the amount of time I have to sacrifice by not taking on freelance work, time away from fiance, and then time studying and prepping will be immense- and I don't even have kids!
I agree the time controls could be shorter and the days less grueling, but there is magic to these traditional tournaments too. I prefer the Action and G50 tournaments over at the Marshall but not everyone has access to those, and those can take up time too. But at least with those I can lick my wounds, study my games, and get back to the grind the next day.
It's a tough game. Thanks for sharing.