Are we revealing any secret when we say that psychology has a great weight in competitive chess? The idea is intuitive, because it is the most mental game and the emotions of the players are analogous to those of a student facing an exam.
The professional is a human being like everyone else, with his or her daily concerns, who has to pay bills like you and me. For many of these talented individuals, the opportunity to play the Llobregat Open Chess Tournament offers the possibility of facing very tough opponents in each round, so they can get many points in the world rankings, in addition to the economic prizes. But what happens to them when things don’t go according to plan? Let’s talk about the emotional consequences of a setback in the first third of a tournament. The first three games of competition mark a before and after for the professional. The seeded system should guarantee a smooth start within the difficulty, with the aim that in the middle and final stages of the tournaments there will be fierce duels between the candidates for the final victory. In this way, the predictable range is 2.5 – 3 points out of a possible 3. However, the yellow brick road is nothing more than a wish full of good intentions, since multiple contingencies can occur. Among them, that an opponent with a lower rating spoils the tournament for the top seed with an unexpected defeat. Then, suddenly, everything changes. The work of a whole season, the preparations and the effort invested, are shattered. The situation is critical, there is one week to go and there is nothing left to win; instead, there is a whole world to lose. Let’s not fool ourselves, it is easy to lose motivation and drag the pains on the board, against opponents who know you are broken and who are going to squeeze you in every game, so you end up chaining one defeat after another. That risk, that of ending up losing many international Elo points, is real. That is why, after the unexpected defeat, the Soviet school of chess, in the last century, advised to make a placid draw after a defeat, to recompose the mood. It is not bad advice, and from here we entrust you with this training secret, which can be useful for you in other fields. Focusing on the third round of Group A of the Llobregat Open Chess Tournament, we had the honor of receiving the visit of Miguel Angel Grima, president of Sant Boi Empresarial, who has made the traditional ringing of the bell that starts the round of play.
In sporting terms, the good results of the U-16 world champion Javier Habans (table 4) and Cristian Andrés Hernández (table 5), who both achieved draws against opponents that surpassed the 2500 Elo barrier, stood out. The provisional classification is still led by José Manuel López, followed by Ido Gorshtein and Cristóbal Henríquez, all three with 3 points in 3 games. In group B, Brayden Van De Graaff, Denis Valiev and Jordi García lead with 2 points. In group C, with 2 points we have Hailey Ruth Van De Graaff and Javier Sanz, followed with 1.5 points by Lluís Julbe.
