Should You Play Up?

A question I’ve received several times in the past few weeks is, “Should I play up a section?” For example, if you’re playing in an over-the-board tournament and your rating is 1700, should you play in the under 1800 section, or under 2000 section?

As with many things in chess, it comes down to personal preference, but there are definite pros and cons to each decision. Let’s go through them one by one.

Playing Up

The ideal opponent to practice against is around 100-200 points ahead of you. According to Elo predictions, you’re expected to win around ⅓-¼ of these games. This is a good balance between being forced to push yourself to compete, while still having a fighting chance.

Related to this, you don’t want to play up too far. If you’re in a section with many opponents 400 or more points ahead of you, you’re probably going to lose a lot of games where you never had a chance. This is neither instructive nor fun.

You should also judge your current state of mind. If you’re the lower rated player in most or all of your games, you’ll probably be playing on the back foot a lot and end up scoring below 50% (but don’t discount the possibility of having a great tournament!). Will this feel like a fun challenge, or a depressing slog?

If you can tolerate being under pressure in a lot of your games, it’s probably the best decision if your goal is to maximize improvement.

Playing in your section

First of all, let me dispel the notion that choosing not to play up is somehow wimping out. I think many players are concerned about this, but it’s not the right way to think about it. Chess tournaments are grueling contests of mental endurance. It’s going to be a challenge no matter which section you play in, you just get to choose which kind of challenge.

If you play up the challenge is holding your own against higher rated opponents. If you play in your section the challenge is consistently beating equal or lower rated players. Neither is easy, and in fact they require different skills. To be a well-rounded chess player, you want to be able to succeed in both of these environments.

Believe me, winning a tournament is never easy, even if you go in as the highest rated player. Playing in your own section is a good decision if trying to win the section feels like a fun and motivating goal, or if the ratings work out so that you’re near the middle or bottom of the section anyway.

I think this goes without saying, but trying to win a section prize is not an efficient way to make money. In most tournaments, the prize amounts are way too low to move the needle. Even in big open tournaments where the section prizes are more substantial, the chance of winning in a big field is low no matter how underrated you are. These environments also present a high risk for attracting cheaters. When you factor in air travel, hotels, and so on, your hourly rate would be higher doing virtually anything else.

Conclusion

You can rarely go too far wrong with either decision. As a default, I would suggest playing in your “natural” section, and simply moving up when your rating qualifies you for it. If everyone played up all the time, it would defeat the purpose of sections. But if you’re looking for an additional challenge, especially if your current rating would put you near the top of your section, playing up is a good option as well. When in doubt, go with what feels more exciting and motivating for you.