Lessons from Easter 2014, or, Why do I fail in congresses?

 Despite my relatively hyperactive posting lately, I have four games still to do - so this post might seem like an indulgence. However, I think the question raised in the title is important enough that it must be addressed. Since July I have played three congresses and scored +3 =5 -8 (a 141 performance) compared to +11 =10 -2 (177) in evening leagues: somehow my playing strength is reduced by over 35 points! I do feel that my play gets weaker rather than that of my opponents improving - compare the previous few games (also August and January from the archive) with my recent win against Norman in which I made one sub-optimal move all game!

 There are a few possibilities. The added responsibility of team competitions seems to benefit me - even my two BUCA tournaments have been reasonable despite the weekend setting - so perhaps the chance to win tournaments is not a good motivator. It may even be a hindrance: I focus all the pressure on myself, often as a high seed with an eye to a looming grading list, and demand too much. I get insomnia the night before a tournament starts - without fail - but my problems aren't limited to morning rounds. I suspect it is mostly psychological - my history of bad tournaments causes me to fear playing in them, tighten up and become a passive blunder machine. But can this be 35 points on its own?

 Though I feel some self-imposed mental handicap is responsible, not lifestyle factors or a brand of chess somehow unsuited to weekenders, I have no precise answer and only a crude 'solution'. Indeed, this post is really just a roundabout way of saying that I plan to drastically cut down on my congress appearances - not completely, and with compensatory rapidplays, but a lot less. The figures are irresistible: since January I've performed at almost 190 in the leagues but even that may not be enough to drag me over the 170 target.

  For all their problems, congresses work well as a snapshot of my weaknesses at the time. It seems that the gaps I identified in January persist: although my play is sharper, my thought process still needs a lot of work, both in calculation and planning. With my only study since January being academic, I have been aware of this all along; my chess has been in a strange form of limbo for some time now. I only had to put up with this for another few games before the conclusion of my exam would offer the necessary time; the first of them was the concluding act of the Bristol League.