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tips for marathon

hello all!, this time I am planning to play in tjis lichess.org/tournament/summer18 spring marathon, because I never joined it, can all ppl those who are good at it, can you guys give me some tips, for what to play and other preparations? thanks
I'm in the same boat, my plan is to start playing classical chess and then when the time gets closer to switch rapid, then eventually blitz. Interested to see what others have to say!
i suggest you to keep a bottle of water near the tablet. When you play with player with more elo i suggest you to berserk the game. The trick is to play more games than your opponents.
Remember to eat every 4 hours.
Good luck.
Depending on your age and your sleep habits: Get A LOT of sleep before the marathon (so that if you need to sleep, you only need a little).

If you're young, and you don't have good sleep habits, then it doesn't matter too much (other than make sure you get a normal, full night's rest before). Speaking from my own experience.

If you're older (speaking from my current experience), then, you know the routine: Get your rest, a lot of it. In fact, wear yourself out the second day before, wake (relatively) early the day before, and sleep longer than usual the (night, or day) before -- This way you're rested and can go longer than usual.

BUT, that only works if you are habitually playing chess for extended periods of time. I think my personal record is somewhere around 18-hours, and that's nothing like people who commit a full 24-hours. (There was a guy playing the full 24-h period in the last ZH marathon -- I wish I could do that.)

IF you are not used to playing chess for extended periods of time, then, no matter whatever adjustments you make to things like sleep schedule, you'll do more harm to your rating than your sleep schedule (and hate yourself later). So, only commit what time you feel is appropriate and necessary.

There are also other dumb tricks (i.e. drinking more than usual before going to bed to put yourself down longer; and consume a lot of fluids like juice or water, so the hangover isn't too bad, etc), but, they're only useful if you know or have specific patterns and habits.

In any case: SLEEP. Get a lot of good rest before, and then wake or be easily refreshed without the necessity to sleep a lot or normally during your next cycle so that you can dedicate as much time as you can to playing games. (Thereabouts: See other advice on things like Berzerking, resigning lost positions, time management, etc.)
Protip: Sleep well the night before. Stay hydrated and eat light stuff.
Brotip: dude try scholar's mate everyone will fall for it after like 5 hours playin'
@Iamonfire234 #1
First of all, imho you don't have to rest before the Marathon more than normal. You just need to make sure that you are feeling good, and are able to find the warm winning flow for yourself.
That might mean :
- Having enough food and drinks handy
- Wear your favorite clothes
- Have your favorite music ready
- Make sure there's no distractions (or not more than normal)

Then before playing the Marathon, I suggest to first set yourself a goal.
One goal can be to end up in the top100 (Another goal could be to win some games against say 2000+ or 2200+, or a goal can be to get yourself a new peak rating)
Ending up in top100 might actually seem too difficult for the somewhat lower rated players, but that is not the case. If you play a lot of games, keep going, and don't give up easily you could do it.
How I usually played in the blitz marathons :
Play a few hours and play yourself into the top100.
Then go to sleep for some 5 or 6 hours, and continue playing and get back into the top100.
When you get a long losing streak, then take a short break, and see if you can do better later on.

Another goal could be :
I just want to participate, play some good games, and be part of the Marathon at the start and at the end. The end of the Marathon can actually be really nice, especially when the top 3 players are still close to each other. Lots of players chatting in the tourney chat. It is amazing to see thousands of chess players playing and chatting at the same time in one long tourney.

Good luck & Have fun !
It depends on what your goal is.
If you want to hit top 10 which is what I tried when I participated, you can't really afford sleep in the middle. In that case as mentioned above get food to eat during the day and (very important) a lot of water. Set up your sleep rhythm so that you go to sleep 10h before it starts and wake up shortly before the start of the tournament. You don't really need warm up before the tournament because the tournament is long enough that the first hour isn't as relevant. ;)

If you're not going for the very top you can take breaks of course. Ideally you want to miss the first few hours since those are the least relevant. (and then you are awake during the final few hours) But some half hour breaks every few hours to get a fresh mind can also be a good idea.

As for berserking: If you have a streak NEVER berserk, it's not worth it. If you just lost a game and thus aren't on fire you can berserk if you want though I wouldn't recommend it unless you feel very confident about the game. (i.e. you are rated much higher)

Also generally, stay motivated, there will inevitably be some time when you hit a 10 game losing streak or so, keep going anyway, that will go away again. ;)
Ofc where there are pro tips, there are also pro challenges.

See how long you can go with this song on repeat:

youtu.be/GKSRyLdjsPA

Let me know if you stream the attempt. :)
I have bezered before and my goal will be to go fot atleast top 500 thanks all :)

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