2010 was not too fruitful in terms of chess ratings (in terms of standings -yes - I came second, again, in southwest open and US class championship). I wasn't able to play too many tournaments after moving to Austin and due to my two sojourns to India for few months. Then I got married and you know what it means for chess :-)
However, I good news is that I am a chess expert now - probably I realized what I was doing wrong - and that was - not playing enough tournaments. So i played in lot of local tournaments and gained significant points in a couple of months. The last tournament which finally took me over 2000 was near perfect in terms of my play. I defeated both the jiang kids in the final two rounds, that was satisfying, especially considering that one of them spoiled my southwest open party :-I
here is a position from one of the earlier tournaments in april:
Alok K - Anthony N
Some bad transposition of the opening led me to this. At this point, I was concerned for a moment, before suddenly realizing that white is winning here. 15. Nxe6 should win for white in all variations. From here on, it was not perfect, but I managed to win the point.
here is another:
Alok K, Gucer V
This was absolutely winning for white, but I got the idea implemented in a wrong way. The correct approach would have been to fix the black pawns by exf6, and then proceed to gobble the b and d pawns. The white king can not defend those coz of the white pawns on the outside, and the black bishop would not be sufficient to defend against a combined attack of white bishop and king. Instead I started immediately to attack the b pawn by (possibly) Bd4 to Ba5 and K to Kb3. That, obviously didn't work as black managed to trade off kingside pawns and even with a pawn down, he could sac his bishop for the last white pawn.
Anyways, reflecting on what I was doing wrong so far, here is a list which might help somebody else picking up chess in his adult years:
1. Concentrate too much on openings:
Openings are important, especially in quick games. but most of the wins and losses <2000 level comes from middlegame mistakes. Focusing too much on openings also made me develop a habit of moving quicker (since I knew the standard opening moves), getting used to making moves faster even in the middle game, and making more mistakes.
2. Not playing enough tournaments:
I can not focus on this enough. If you want a 100 point increase in your USCF ratings, consider playing 10-15 tournaments on an average for that. You might get lucky and win 100 points in 3 tournaments, but it seems to me that around 9-15 points seem to be the average points gain/tournament.
There is another reason to play more tourneys however. And that is due to the strange USCF rules, calculating your performance rating by adding 400 points to your highest rated opponent if you score perfectly. Playing a lot of tournaments gives you that option....the more you play the more chances are that you would score 3-0 or 4-0 in smaller tourneys which would easily offset any losses.
3. Practice tactics:
This one requires no explanation. first and foremost chess is a game of combinations and <2000 level, most of the games are decided in one form or other by tactics. Get a good tactics book (or mail me for a list) and practice daily. and practice on the board with real pieces, not on the computer to give yourself a good board vision.
4. No/not enough physical activity:
I could not believe that I was not tired in my last tournament even after I woke up early and played tennis for 1.5 hours just before the tourney. Usually by the 3-4 game, my head would be spinning. I do not know the scientific reason, but I guess physical activities improve the blood circulation and supply to your brain (ok, stop laughing-this was just a theory :-) ). Now i am not saying you do a marathon before a chess match, but consider having enough physical activity (swimming, running etc etc) in your weekly schedule.
5. good sleep and food:
there was a survey (cant recall the link now) among the musicians - the crux of which was that apart from practice, the second most important things they pointed out for good performance was adequate sleep. the same goes for what you eat during the tourney also. Chess is a very strenuous game and you need the energy to play long games.
6. Fight for the points:
Do not, especially in your growing phases (in terms of ratings), settle for a draw. Take a draw when it is the only outcome, but fight for every point - which might mean taking some risks. You would learn much more, and the more you press yourself, the more you would try to find better moves on the board to pressurize your opponent. Similarly, do not prematurely resign (ok, i am not suggesting to play till checkmate though).
I would not dare to suggest that this would work for everybody, just sharing my own experience.
