Searching for Mediocrity in Chess

This is my opinion on having a regular U1600 section for the club tournament. I'm not trying to condemn any players.

Since the establishment of the U1600 section in club tournaments recently, I've observed a few players who seem content to be under 1600 rating points. Hopefully, this isn't true for most of the U1600 players.

There may be several reasons why a few players wish to only play in the U1600 section:

1) A few may be happy to remain under 1600 points. One or two might be referred to as "sandbagging". In other words, deliberately keeping a low ranking so tournament results will look great with a possible shot at tournament prize money.

2) A few players only appear to want to play only lower-ranked opponents in which they have a better chance of winning. When the opportunity comes to play higher-rated players they opt to sit out of the tournament. With this kind of attitude, they will never reach their true potential and may never progress to a higher level. You learn more from stronger opponents. Unfortunately, these players are turning down a great opportunity to improve. My recommendation would be to toss the ego and get a reality check. Admit you are not as good as you think you are and work on improving.

3) There's a few database or opening gurus. I fell into this category. This is one of the slowest roads to improvement. Some of these guys' play falls off in the middlegame and the endgame. So, what do they do? They go back to wasting more time improving their opening. The problem kinda feeds itself. Its similar to an addiction. Many of these players can be told what they are doing is wrong, yet, they continue to do it.

4) Some player either do not have much passion for the game or are just lazy. I'm not condeming these players. However, personally I would find another hobby if I didn't have the passion for chess. For the lazy players, I wonder what it would take to ignite their passion for the game. Obviously, losing isn't doing it.

Here's my opinion on an Under 1600 section for club tournament play. There might be some merit to having a separate section for U1600. It might be good to have a U1600 section for a large tournament. However, outside of that, I believe it can create a complacent trap that provides some temptation to become an underachiever.

FINAL THOUGHT: I think having a U1600 section on a regular basis is more harmful to the lower-rated players than it is good. I think human nature often tends to drive us to take the easy way out. In my opinion, these guys need to be forced to have a challenge and avoid taking the easy way out.

Having a club is a great opportunity to play stronger players an learn. Take advantage of it! At minimum, take the time to ask some of the stronger players to look at your game for suggestions.

I'm sure others have a different opinion and that's okay.

NOTE: I'm not talking about all the lower-rated players...only those who seem to want to stay where there are in terms of lower rating.

cheers

Paul