Maine Rapid Chess Championship: Before

 

The Maine Rapid Chess Championship is tomorrow at the Wells Reserve at Laudholm, and it will be my first U.S. Chess Federation (USCF) event since the Luftballons Schach tournament in Auburn in August 2016.

My regular rating is currently 842, which is considered to be Class F level--or the ninth tier on the federation's 13-tier ratings distribution chart. Out of the 442 players in Maine with a current U.S. Chess membership, that rating is #185 in the state.

And my quick rating (i.e., the rating for games featuring time controls of fewer than 30 minutes) is 761, a Class G rating. 

Finally, below is my overall record in all official USCF competitions distributed by my opponents' ratings, which dates back to playing on the Westbrook High School chess team in the 1999 Maine State High School Team Championship:

The Maine Rapid Championship will feature games with 15-minute/+5-second time controls, so it will impact the quick rating and overall record in my USCF profile.

On Football and Chess

 

In his book Football & Chess: Tactics, Strategy, Beauty, Adam Wells identifies at least 15 ways the strategies and tactics in soccer and chess overlap:

• Control the center of the field and the center of the board
• Ensure connectivity among players and pieces
• Maximize mobility of players and pieces by providing multiple options for movement
• Position players and pieces based on their strengths, their weaknesses, and the state of the game
• Maintain connectivity and balance when defending the whole field and the whole board
• Expand by using the width when attacking, compress by focusing on the center when defending
• Use all players and pieces as attackers and defenders
• Identify and exploit the opponent's defensive weaknesses
• Use patience and tempo to create and exploit a vulnerable player or position
• Position players and pieces in a connected structure before executing an attack
• Create and use space on the field and the board
• Overload an opposing player or piece with too many defensive responsibilities
• Exploit the "hole" between the opponent's lines of defenders
• Utilize multiplayer and multi-piece combinations and movements
• Apply pressure to opponent by pressing and attacking