@Scarblac: When I play international tournaments I'm often paired with an IM or GM in the first round, and I've found that I have a much better chance of taking a point or half-point against them there than later in a tournament! 

As long as the underdog gets into an opening he knows reasonably well and plays near his top level, there's always the chance that the titled player takes it a little too easy (expecting an easy point) or is tired after a long travel.

Otherwise, lots of good advice here. But everybody is unique and the same advice will not work for everyone, so we should all try out different things, keep the ones that work for us and discard those that don't without regrets. 

For example, I'm a time trouble addict, so playing deliberately slowly in the opening sounds all wrong to me. Instead I try to play the opening quickly and only start thinking (ideally within some predefined maximum time per move) when I'm definitely out of book.

One thing I do that I believe has some effect on me, is to listen to some calming classical music shortly before the game. That way I get into my ideal mental state for playing: calm but rested and focused. (But this usuaully involves wearing an mp3 player with earplugs on my way to the playing hall, so in these days of computer cheating paranoia I'm a bit worried that people may take it the wrong way!)

My thoughts:

Arrive a little bit early so you are not rushed or worried about being there on time and so you can start focusing on your first game.

During the game focus on playing the best you can within the constraints of time etc.  Don't waste time or energy on a position or mistake earlier in the game.  Don't worry about what others are doing or what they may think about your game or your moves.

If your mind starts to drift or you start losing the thread of the position during the game try to refocus your thoughts.  
Have some standard ways that work for you to quickly get your head back into the game.  What is the right plan?  What's your worst piece - how can you improve it?  What's your opponents best piece - how can you trade it or reduce its scope?  If the pieces come off who is better in the ending?  Assess tactical possibilities: quickly visualize every possible move for you and your opponent.  The idea is to have some quick mental exercises that work for you to get your head back into the game if you find it drifting.  The above are just examples.

Calculate and analyze.

Remember that your opponent is not perfect.  Give him or her the opportunity to make a mistake.  If you are worse dig in and look for the hidden resources or the opportunity to counter attack.

I think doing tactics puzzles right before starting to play sometimes puts my mind in the right mode, helping me get my head "in the game". 

I actually should have done that today - I played my first tournament after a break of more than a year (from chess as a whole, not just tournaments), and I got clobbered. Apparently, a month of warming up on the internet before going to a tourney was not enough to prepare me. This could take time.

dfan wrote on 03/24/13 at 16:58:26:


I was going to write the same thing. Take a little time for each move (probably not too much in a rapid tournaments, but at least a few seconds). I usually find that I discover something new even in memorized lines just by looking at alternative moves for me and my opponent - often I get a better understanding of why my intended line is supposed to be good.

Prepared lines seem very hard because its so rare to get them I've had more luck aiming at merely 'workable' positions actually. It makes you think....

Do you want to win ? 

What's your chess drive ? 

I need to work on focus.

Yesterday I played a rapid tournament (20m/game, 7 rounds, start at 10am). During the first two rounds, I was conscious that I was thinking superficially, as if I was disinterested, the thoughts I had weren't really to the point. I played on auto pilot as if I was playing a FICS 5 0 game for fun and lost without putting up resistance.

In the third round focus was slightly better, at least I was telling myself that I didn't have to try to win at all costs with black against a guy who outrates me, and that at least got me interested in what was going on. But I was still worse. Until he blundered. Then my brain woke up, I got excited, focused, and immediately found the relevant variations and won.

From then on I felt completely different, somewhat excited and a little nervous about the games, but not too much. Very focused on the positions, confident. Scored 2.5/4 against guys who way outrated me, could have been 3.5/4.

If I could manage to consistently feel like that from round 1, that would probably raise my strength by several hundred points!

Sometimes I feel that knowing openings well works against me for this sort of thing, because starting a game with 10-15 quick moves from memory makes it too easy to continue without thinking much after the theory. But if I force myself to think out of the box by playing some opening I don't know at all, I'm also telling myself that apparently I don't care about the results so much, so that doesn't really work either.

Perhaps it would help to listen to some Rage Against the Machine or so immediately before the first game, or to play a few blitz games against a friend for money.

What do you guys do?