But I underline that it is too early to generalize from 10-20 players. In all games a conflict develops between two personalities. That is why it is necessary not only to play well, but also to understand the inner state of the opponent, to choose the strategy that is most favourable for yourself and least acceptable for the opponent. Here I would like to give some advice about both sporting and psychological preparations. It is particularly important to study those novelties, which are part of your reportoire or these who are popular in your club.
Some players consider knowledge of openings to be unnecessary and play at sight.
But the opening is a very important stage of the game. Mistakes in the opening can turn out fatal and lead to a defeat, whereas a well played opning makes further play easier. The other excess is learning openings by heart. Understanding of the game is substituted by memorizing. Instead of making use of a transposition of moves or a different position in regard to the board's edge in some variant, such players themselves transpose moves in order to return to the know pattern.