The chess season in the UK runs from roughly October-May, so now seems like another good time to ask about your own playing habits. The majority of games are played in midweek league matches or weekend congresses, and there are also 9 round international tournaments on the continent almost every week (and a growing number here too).
If you had the time and the inclination you could play all year round, but at least one elite grandmaster would advise you against that: “When you play too much chess in a short period, bad things tend to happen” tweeted Hikaru Nakamura after a below par performance at the European Club Cup, which came shortly after his rather excellent one in Las Vegas. So our question this week is how many games of chess do you play in a year? Count all your over the board matches, FIDE rated or otherwise (but leave out all these blitz games on Lichess!) 0-10, 11-20, 21-30, 31-40, 41-50, 51-75, 76-100 or 100+
Last week’s poll showed a clear preference for Magnus Carlsen to behave like Merv Hughes over Alastair Cook.
Any news on QC books?
I’m normally in the 11-20 or 21-30 rated games per season categories. I’d love to be able to play somewhere around 51-75 games per season, unfortunately I don’t have the time due to work and family commitments.
Unfortunatly only one tournament per year and some Games in the Local League . Would Love to play more but Thats life
Zero since my son was born two years ago. It has been suggested to me that my next game will be after he reaches the age of 19!
If you convince him to play chess, then maybe you could do it at the age of 5 🙂
@Fer
The tactic is to have chess happening in front of him at age 3-4 and tell him he is too young for it. When he is 5, he will finally be allowed to play ;-). Worked wonders with my kids!
I’ve played somewhere between 21 and 28 games for years. Upped it to 41 last year and trying for around the same or a few more this year. I need to play some more highly graded opponents too.