The rules are simple - send us your questions and see them featured in the weekly Q&A column!

Q1: My rating is between 1700 and 2000, but I still keep missing obvious moves, even in correspondence. Have you encountered this problem, any treatment suggestions?

A1: Apart from lack of concentration and careless play, people often miss "obvious" moves for two reasons: tactical blindness and lack of positional understanding. In the first case even masters sometimes overlook tactical shots (this can be mitigated by adopting a prophylactic approach and solving more tactics, especially the ones that require rigorous calculation as opposed to flashy sacrifices). In the second case it seems to you that your opponent is moving randomly, and then you somehow lose. This is a sign of being outclassed, i.e. not understanding the plan behind your opponent's moves. To avoid that, you should improve your chess in general.

Q2: Can Anish Giri become a top-3 player?
A2: I generally don't like it when some people start acting like arrogant prophets and claim that "this guy will be a World Champ, while this doesn't have the talent". It depends on Anish himself and his competitors. As far as my opinion is concerned, he does have the potential.

Q3: Will Carlsen beat Kasparov's rating record?
A3: Probably. Only 26 points separate him from doing so. However, 2851 now and 2851 ten years ago are two different things. Now there are three 2800+ players and two very close to this border, so if you score a small plus against the world top-5, you will be at about 2850. Ten years ago there was only one player above 2800 - Kasparov (rated nearly 100 points above world's number 5), so he had to crush the opposition to sustain the rating. Therefore, the interesting question is whether Magnus can get to 2900 in the next few years - now that would be an achievement!

Q4: What are the good and bad gambits for people rated under 2000?
A4: People under 2000 have a lot to learn about chess, and that should be done by playing classical systems, not relying on outsmarting the opponent by playing a rare gambit. So, if you wish to improve, you had better either abandon gambits completely, or play only the most reliable ones (e.g. Queen's gambit, the Benko, Marshall gambit, etc.). There are dozens of them, but you can easily google the info on any opening and find out whether it's considered to be sound or not. Don't play for traps! On the other hand, if you have no intention to improve your game or results, you can play anything you like, even if it leaves you in a lost position after 10 moves.

Q5: How much tactics per day should I do?
A5: An hour of tactics a day keeps the patzer away. Another good idea is to combine tactics with purely positional exercises. This will make you a more balanced player. Otherwise (if you only solve tactics, nothing else) there is a high chance that you might go berserk otb and start sacrificing pieces wildly for no reason (since you're accustomed to it) only to see that this approach doesn't work out!

Q6: What is the best way to prepare for a tournament?
A6: Diagnoze your main weaknesses and fix them. Sometimes it's about dealing with health issues. Sometimes you have to find the motivation to perform well. If you are tired of chess, you may want to rest for a few days and feel the desire to play again. When being rusty (after not playing for a few months/years) a few training games or even lots of blitz may be handy. And so on.

Q7: Do you have any domestic animals?
A7: I love animals, but have to travel a lot, so there's no one to look after them. That's why I don't have a pet.

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To answer this tricky question, we will review the schedules of the very best chess players in the world. While in general copying the training routine of a top grandmaster is unreasonable for less proficient players, here the situation is somewhat different. The world is not perfect, so most amateurs simply can’t afford to allocate too much time for tournament play. On the other hand, non-elite grandmasters often have to flock from one event to another to earn a decent amount of money. Naturally, neither of these cases is optimal. That’s why we will be looking at top pros: they are supposed to know this as no one else does, and have the opportunity to choose the amount of games that suits them best.

First of all, here’s the September 1, 2010 top-20. Next to each name you can see how many rated games the person has played in 2009:
 

1. Carlsen – 75

2. Topalov – 41

3. Anand – 25

4. Aronian – 93

5. Kramnik – 26

6. Eljanov – 86

7. Grischuk – 55

8. Mamedyarov – 69

9. Ivanchuk – 135

10. Gelfand – 96

11. Ponomariov – 42

12. Shirov – 93

13. Radjabov – 60

14. Karjakin – 69

15. Nakamura – 86

16. Wang – 83

17. Svidler – 114

18. Adams – 74

19. Jakovenko – 71

20. Malakhov – 84

Now let’s sort the list by number of games per year to make it more expressive:
 

1. Ivanchuk – 135 (well-known chess addict)
2. Svidler – 114 (admitted being tired, but couldn’t miss some important events)
3. Gelfand – 96
4. Aronian – 93
5. Shirov – 93
6. Eljanov – 86
7. Nakamura – 86
8. Malakhov – 84
9. Wang – 83
10. Carlsen – 75 (median number)
11. Adams – 74 (median number)
12. Jakovenko – 71
13. Mamedyarov – 69
14. Karjakin – 69
15. Radjabov – 60
16. Grischuk – 55
17. Ponomariov – 42 (doesn’t play a lot after becoming FIDE ex-World Champion in 2004)
18. Topalov – 41 (was busy preparing for the WC match against Anand)
19. Kramnik – 26 (always acts like he’s preparing for a WC match)
20. Anand – 25 (was busy preparing for the WC match against Topalov)

It’s easy to see that the median number for elite grandmasters is 74-75 games per year (ironically, by doing so we get Magnus Carlsen, the highest-rated player in the world, as a role model in this respect). This should be close to the optimal amount of games/year for a person who takes chess seriously. However, it is essential to remember that this list doesn’t include rapid/blitz/blind/exhibition events, training games; doesn’t reflect the time spent on studying chess and analyzing one’s games. To become an eminent player, one should keep in mind all the intricacies of the training process, not only one feature.

Warning: this article should serve as food for thought, not a medical prescription stating that “you won’t improve unless you play X games a year.”

In case someone is interested in my chess schedule, it normally includes about 90 rated games per year. The end of 2010 is going to be especially busy since upcoming are the Women’s World Blitz Championship (unrated), World Chess Olympiad, European Club Championship, Russian Superfinal, Women’s World Championship and (maybe) ACP Rapid World Championship (unrated).
 

Meanwhile, let’s take a look at another game from the recent Russia – China friendly match:
 

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