Beating aggressive players?

I have a question. While I'm certainly not an expert player, I wouldn't consider myself a beginner any more either. As such, the people who I have been playing are all roughly my ability or better, and so I generally expect them to make good moves, and they usually do. My question is this. What do you do when you play a beginner who knows almost nothing about openings? Why I ask this is that beginners often play hyperaggressive games, developing pieces like the queen early on, and resulting in positions that are not often seen in etter played games. I know the book line is if your opponent develops his queen early, develop your own pieces while attacking his queen to keep him running. However, in some positions that can backfire horribly, as in a recent game where I embarrassingly got caught with my pants down and actually was down a rook as a result of that. So what do people do to avoid this sort of thing from happening?

-mike

I get into similar situations. I tend to play fairly well-known openings (I like the Giuoco Piano), and only try to be clever in the middle game. THe way I sometimes deal with very aggressive beginners is simply to watch them very carefully; when they play aggressively, they leave themselves open for a fork or something of that ilk.

I have had this experience too.

My thoughts are these, for what it's worth (coming from a very mediocre player):

Stay calm. Don't feel that a dramatic move requires a dramatic reply. Don't assume that because your opponent is playing overaggressively, you'll immediately be able to win material.

And, most important, turn off autopilot-- I for one tend to move rather mechanically in the beginning of the game, and so I overlook threats when the opening is unusual, often to my great disadvantage. Try not to do this. 😀

I'll back what the others have said and add a little of my own take. I used to get nailed by this all the time when I was trying to learn a particular opening pattern. I would try to keep doing what moves my opening called for and fall into a really stupid trap. Sometimes, the other guy isn't as much an amatuer as someone trying to force you out of your game.

Your best defense against all of this is to remember the basics of good opening play while remembering to take extra notice of that aggressive move. Does that piece directly threaten you right now? With one move can it be in a position to really do some harm? If yes to either question, deal with the problem. If no to both, develop your pieces systematically.

Just remember, bad opening moves get their due punishment. You just might have to wait a dozen moves or so before the time is right for you to hand out that punishment.

Take care,

SmittyG

attack. allways attack! 😀

I agree, attack. When you have a player like this who wants to jump out, jump back. That tends to slow them down a bit.

I agree. Punish their poor choice of moves with extreme prejudice! 😉 At least that what people always do to me!! hehehe...😲

Most beginners totally rely on thier queen. Sacarfise your queen, to capture theirs and the game is usually won.

-mike

ps: Just be carefulnot to lose yours for no gain in the process (i am guilty of that more than once)

Originally posted by legionnaire
I have a question.... So what do people do to avoid this sort of thing from happening?

-mike

I used to sit back and let them come forward, while I developed to text book. Then I foudnout, quelle horreur, that some of them were not beginners and were running a pretty daring, agressive opening on the understanding that I was going to do just that.

Now I just try and figure out - what does their opening expose? How can I attack that? What is their end target here (if it is one piece, then a good player would be trying to snare, say, a knight a rook and one more of either (which might be considered a good swap for a Queen).

One post below was quite good - if they are a beginner, a game without Queens will sort the situation out.😀

Originally posted by latex bishop
Mike all I would say on this is play your own game and stay in control of what you are doing. If you feel confident of moing away from controlled openings by an instant counter attack, it quite clearly is the correct response as Ray (lionel) has pointed out...

But it is important to remember that Ray is a exceptional chess player and so when he moves ...[text shortened]... ack or defend, but I find I have more chance of beating a weaker player if i sit back.

Andrew

I find that winning my chess games is not very much unlike my martial arts. Push and pull. Exploit every move to your best discernment. When an opponent moves a piece, attack what it defended. So forth and so forth. Exploitation seems like a nasty word, but it serves purpose. The basics of any contest are often, in truth, the whole of the contest. Calculate, estimate, anticipate, correlate, and concentrate. 😉

To expand on what Omni says, if an opponent attacks (in other words "pushs&quot😉 pull him in and he will not be able to defend 🙂

Amici Sumus

Feivel

Feivels got the right idea! 😉

i would say just trying to be equally as aggressive, or mabye even more aggressive than your opponent. like said before, if (s)he is attacking, then (s)he cant defend. if you think you cant beat an aggressive player now, then try going all out against your opponent. its probably better (in my opinion) to lose in a great attacking game than to lose by steadily being attacked, just being gained on, slowly, with nothing you can do to stop it. just think, even if u do try an all out attacking game, you might lose.