Tournament Preparation

The SuperNationals mega-tournament takes place next month in Nashville, in which all three Spring scholastic championships (elementary, junior high and high school) occur at the same time and at the same location. Some 5,000 players are expected to attend this combined event that only takes place every four years.

In advance of this big event, I thought it would be interesting to hear from a variety of talented players, coaches and parents regarding how best to prepare for a chess tournament, physically, nutritionally and psychologically. Our esteemed “panel” members offer a number of interesting suggestions!

The Panel

WFM Abby Marshall – prominent high school player.
WGM Jennifer Shahade – editor of Chess Life Online.
Jonathan Hilton – prominent high school player and editor of World Chess Live newsletter.
Michael Goeller – author of The Kenilworthian blog.
FM Darwin Yang – prominent scholastic player.
IM Greg Shahade – founder of the U.S. Chess League and the U.S. Chess School
Dan Heisman – full-time chess tutor and author of many books, as well as the popular ChessCafe.com Novice Nook column.
Dr. Gary Robson, father of teenage IM Ray Robson.
WIM Dr. Alexey Root – author and lecturer at University of Texas at Dallas.
FM Robby Adamson – won multiple national scholastic championships and has coached multiple national championship teams at Tucson’s Catalina Foothills High School; he is featured on the cover of the March 2009 issue of Chess Life.

To read all about what our panel had to say about what should be done prior to and during a big tournament, see my March ChessCafe Scholastic Chess column here, or in the ChessCafe archives.