Maintaining composure in OTB tournaments

My spiraling ELO obsession and how it killed my composure

When I first entered the OTB scene, I had no concern at all regarding my opponent's rating. I played my tournaments as if they were unrated and just focused on enjoying the game. This carefree approach landed me in the world of 1600 ELO.

Nothing spectacular, in all fairness, but certainly something at the time.

However, as my ELO settled into the low to mid-1800s (still, nothing great to many of you), something changed.

I suddenly had this obsession with getting that little number next to my name as high as possible. And more importantly, trying my hardest to minimize my losses against lower-rated players, usually by offering draws in 'equal positions' (I'll cover these positions later).

Playing attacking-style openings I'd been learning for years—such as the Dragon—became very difficult. I was so invested in not losing rating to the point where I completely forgot how to attack.

I couldn't get myself to play even the simplest Sicilian Dragon ideas, such as playing Rc8 (you heard that right, Dragon fanatics; I often didn't even move my queen rook!), because I was scared of shallow attacks and rushed pawn pushes by some inexperienced White player.

Basically, I had no composure when facing a lower-rated player.

I also had horrendous time management in those days of ELO obsession. I'd come out of the opening with half my time left and an 'equal position'.

So, what actually are these 'equal positions'?

They're positions that you're better in, but overestimate your opponent's capability to defend or counter. Or positions that have a lot of play left, but you feel scared taking any risks due to your opponent's lower rating and a fear of ELO loss.

Here's an example from one of my games!

Back to the ELO

I'd lose around 3-5 points of rating every game from drawing, ending up with a ~10 point decrease every tournament (of course, I still beat some people).

Over just a few tournaments, my rating would dip from ~1820 to ~1730 because of this timid, indecisive chess.

And then I often had an amazing tournament that bounced my rating back up.
And I slowly trickled down again, through the exact same method.

This cycle went on for about three years.
I was strongly considering giving up chess.
Until it suddenly stopped.

How I regained my chess with a few good habits

I did a few simple tricks to get my head off my opponent's rating and into my position that any of you can use, too.

Not writing my or my opponent's rating on the scoresheet

The tournament I started doing this, I saw a huge difference in my play. Because I didn't constantly have either ELO in my vision (literally), I could focus much more on playing the game rather than my opponent's rating. This led to my time trouble problems rapidly diminishing. I kept beating lower and higher-rated players, and I got over 60 points!

The success didn't end there. The very next tournament, I hit my peak and won every game!

Letting instinct play in time trouble

When you have very little time in a very active position and you can't see any outcomes, don't try to calculate everything and go with your instinct. Of course, if you have a +30 increment every move, it's a different story.

But in smaller tournaments where there's around a +5 increment or delay and you're under a minute on time, you don't have the time to really think about the position. You just have to let yourself play chess. I like to pretend it's a bullet game because I'm decent at speed chess, but you can do whatever you like.

Keeping your head in the game

Finally, outside of my rating craze, I had a horrible habit that I see many people doing, too. I never sat on my board and thought about the position. I kept standing up, looking at other games, and fidgeting with a pawn or my pen.

This habit actually demolished how I played. I often analyzed other people's matches more than my own, leading to many positions in which I didn't know what to do because I spent much of my time that could've been used thinking about my own game on others. It's fine to stand up once or twice and check someone's game, but doing this every time you play a move in the middlegame is too much.

In summary, try to sit down in your chair, or if you need to stand up, don't get too deep into someone else's position.

Hope you found this useful!