Tournament Strategy, Part 2.

Ref: Here and here.

Where is the problem with the term Tournament strategy? The weaponry can be found soon enough if we sit down and really look at it. We did that for SEA games training with good results although it was not perfect. But I am confident that we will eventually get more and more correct with enough proper selection tournaments.

The problem is within the term strategy. Now this is a term not easily understood. So let me try to use an analogy. Did you see "The last Samurai" with Tom Cruise? In the movie there was a situation where the new untrained Japanese army with riffles were asked to withold firing until the charging Samurais were very near. In their panic, they fired early in the first encounter and were decimated.

From here we can see that the strategy may be correct but you need to be trained to execute the strategy. Now this is where the real problem is as I have found while training the Juniors. Chess in tournaments and chess in high levels bring a lot of stress. The higher the level, the higher the stress. I am sure you can agree with that.

Now at high levels of stress, the untrained mind breaks down. They forget the strategy, they abandon their strategy in their fear. So a major part of  FGM training is stress management. What is the point of doing all that analysis when you cannot remember the training, cannot remember the strategy or ditch the strategy at the first sign of a problem?

So examine my methods. You will often see me at the tournaments where my players are playing. Now what do I do? I observe. I look at the mental state of my players. I remind them what our agreed strategy is in between rounds. I examine if the decision made by my players to change strategy is based on sound reasoning or based on fear.

But I can only do that in between rounds. Once the clock has started I have to trust that their training is adequate. That they can still think and make good decisions on the board despite the stress level. So I teach problem solving and decision making too.

Now can you understand why I am not in favour of trainers who use intimidation on their own players? That is the job of the opponent. The job of the coach is to support the player. To keep their mind on the strategy and to manage the stress to prevent it from reaching tipping point.

So the biggest enemy to any player is a trainer/coach without emotional control. They implant more fear into the players instead of helping. And there is already so much stress the players have to handle. They then belittle the players after they have crashed because the trainer and training was lousy.

That is the worst sort of betrayal in my eyes. The enemy from within. The players do not need that. They need to face the opponents in front of them and not attacks from what is supposed to be a part of their team.

If that happens enough times, the players are finally broken. And I seriously think that is what happened to Jimmy. And then it spreads.