3 Brutal Lessons from a Recent OTB Tournament

What happens when a 46-year-old GM faces the teenagers.

They say age is just a number.

Perhaps… But if you play chess and your average competition is 15 years old and you can only score 50% while being a Grandmaster, you start to wonder…

Last week I decided to shake off some rust and played at one of the strongest tournaments in the US, Washington International in Rockville, MD.

In this post, I will share with you three lessons I learned from this experience.

Lesson 1 — Deep Opening Prep is a Myth

When you hear, “Oh, GMs will whip out 25 moves of opening theory” and “Of course, with modern engines, everything is analyzed out,” you may think that everyone at the top is booked up to the teeth. Yet, paradoxically, as the modern engines got better, it is less common to see deep theoretical discussions. The very simple reason is that both players know that you can’t argue with the engine these days. Therefore, it’s better to sidestep someone’s prep much earlier, and to have both players think at the board.

The other reason is that engines made most openings playable these days. So, that means if you’re a GM from 20+ years ago who only studied sharp Najdorfs and The Berlin, now you have to expect at least 5-6 flavors of the Sicilian and as many for each standard opening. For example, GM Cordova unleashed a new idea vs the Sicilian in this position (1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 h5)

Black’s last move 5…h5!? was only seen in about 400 games.

It’s no surprise that a young 2300 player was out of book, made some mistakes and lost in 20 moves!

Here’s the complete game:

As for me, I was out of book usually between moves 5-10 in all my games. Here’s a very original Sicilian position that I got vs a promising youngster, who gained 100+ rating points in the tournament.

My opponent went for an early Qxd4 Sicilian (funny that it’s also my recommendation in the upcoming 1.e4 Lifetime Repertoire on Chessable). I reacted with an early …a6 to get him out of book and now we’re both in uncharted waters.

I correctly rejected the 6…g6 setup as after 7.Be3 Bg7 8.Nd5! the weakness of b6 is too much for Black to handle:

Instead, I chose an original way to develop my pieces with …Nf6, Bg4 and e6, achieving a Scheveningen setup:

Black is doing fine and I eventually started to outplay my young opponent, only to experience the classic symptom of rust that I call Calculation Fatigue, which brings me to the next lesson.

Lesson 2 — Calculation Fatigue Is The Real Deal

For me, this is probably the biggest issue in this tournament. It goes something like this: at some point in the game I have to do some deep and intense calculation for 10-15min. I finally double and triple check that my lines are accurate and play a good move. However, my level for the next 2-3 moves drops dramatically. This is the hallmark of calculation fatigue! My brain is telling me: “look buddy, I did all this work and I need to relax, I’m not 20 years old anymore.” The problem is that usually this happens in some complicated middlegame, where one slip is enough to lose any edge.

Fast forward past the opening from the previous game. We reached this classic Sicilian middlegame.

Black to move:

I was tempted by the idea of winning the b2-pawn using a tactic with 23…Nxb2 24.Bxb2 Qb6+! A nice intermezzo, followed by Qxb2 next. Of course, I had to go deeper and consider various Rb1 or Bg4 ideas, and eliminate them one by one. Yet, after double-checking my lines I noticed a powerful intermezzo: 23…Nxb2? 24.fxe5!

The point is that Black can’t take on e5 with the pawn as my knight on d7 hangs (after …Qb6+ and …Qxb7) while taking with the knight enables White to block on d4 with the bishop! And finally, …Nxd1 runs into another intermezzo exd6! threatening mate on g7 and my queen on c7. At this point, after thinking for at least 10 minutes I realized that Black is just busted! So, I played the correct move 23…Bf6! and after 24.b3 exf4 25.Qxf4, we reach this position.

Black to move:

Being tired from all the previous calculation and not wanting to get too low on the clock, I played the logical 25…Be5, trying to trade dark square bishops. The problem is chess is a concrete game, and while I ended up winning the dark squares and the d4-outpost after 26.Bxe5 dxe5, White was able to play c4 and bring the knight to d5 later via c3. Black has nothing, and the game eventually petered out into a draw.

Yet, Black has a beautiful tactic in the above diagram starting with 25…Bxc3 26.Nxc3

Black to move:

The key idea is 26…Qc5+ (26…Nb2! right away is good too) 27.Kh1 Nb2! (The knight is trapped on b2, but it works tactically!) 28.Rxd6 (better is 28.Na4 and trying to defend an ugly position after 27…Nxa4 28.bxa4 Ne5!) 28…Ne5! 29.Rd5 Qxc3 30.Rxe5

Black to move

And now the knight makes a deadly fork with 30…Nd3! and it’s lights out for White. Oh bummer, had I not wasted all my energy on trying to make 23…Nxb2? work, there’s a good chance I would have found this tactic and won the game.

Lesson 3 — Kids Make Eval Mistakes

As I couldn’t outplay kids in the opening or outcalculate them, I was pleasantly surprised that I can still evaluate certain positions better than them. Maybe it is thanks to the book that I co-authored with my friend FM Nate Solon, Evaluate Like A Grandmaster:

Here’s an example from my round 1 game vs a crazy strong youngster: Artemii Khabutaev.

White to move:

I’m playing Old Man chess, and we’ve reached a standard Catalan middlegame, where Black’s last move was …c5, challenging my center. The position is critical as Black is getting ready to trade on c4 and d4 and win my c4-pawn. However, I had seen it from afar and played 13.Nb5! not being afraid of the doubled pawns after BxN. My opponent quickly traded and played for c4 (13…Bxb5 14. cxb5 c4 15.bxc4 dxc4 16. Qc2 c3) to reach the position below:

At first, the pawn on c3 looks like a powerful passer, especially since we know the queen is the absolute worst blockader! Yet, White is clearly better! The reason is that I have the bishop pair and the center pawn duo. The engine agrees and gives White a clear +1. Needless to say that due to calculation fatigue I botched this one badly and had to escape with a draw.

In this next example, I borrowed a classic idea from the Benoni structure.

White to move:

White is up a pawn but I didn’t want to play a passive move like 23.Re1 as Black gets quick counterplay with 23…a4! However, I used the pawn sacrifice to drive a wedge into Black’s position and kill off the g7-bishop: 23.e5! exd5 24.f5!

In just two moves look how quickly the position has changed. Black’s bishop on g7 is totally dead and White controls all the key squares. I ended up converting a few moves later.

White to move:

White has at least 15 moves (!) that win here, needless to say Black is totally lost and resigned after a simple 34.Bxe5!

The Takeaway

Playing classical OTB chess after a long break is humbling, but it’s the best way to expose your weaknesses and actually improve.

If you are an adult improver, remember these three things:

1. Don’t waste hundreds of hours trying to memorize deep opening lines you will never see.

2. Manage your energy. If you overcalculate early, Calculation Fatigue will cost you the game in the middlegame.

3. Trust your evaluations. Kids can calculate like machines, but understanding structures and piece value comes with experience.

Here is a handy graphic that sums it all up. Feel free to save it to your phone or desktop to review before your next tournament!

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If you want to save your mental energy in the opening so you can actually survive the middlegame without calculation fatigue, you need an opening system built on “Old Man” intuition.

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