Quote Originally Posted by Lyle Craver View Post
30 years ago when I lived in Winnipeg some B players routinely beat US Experts in Minneapolis. They insisted this was a problem with the USCF rating system - my view then as now was that when they went to Minneapolis (which is a similar distance from Toronto to Montreal) it was a weekend entirely devoted to chess that they would have been looking forward and preparing for at least a month in advance. As opposed to their local club tournament where they were at the board an hour after leaving work.

Which do YOU think would tend to focus your mind on chess more - admittedly it's not the same with children but I think my point is obvious. Sure there was some ratings deflation in Winnipeg at the time (as a Canadian Open around that time demonstrated) but I do think attitude plays a big role in performance.
I get more focused for the once a week tournaments except when we have meetings immediately before the game. No real fatigue factor is in play as might be the case when you have to play three or four games in one day for many tournaments.