Originally posted by amolv06 It actually relaxes me a bit since I'm expected to lose. In my case, this turns out to be a good thing because I am not as nervous so I spend more time studying the board. When I'm playing someone my own rating I play far more impulsively and make stupider blunders.
I get that way over the board sometimes. 2 weeks ago I traded into a winning endgame and offered a draw to a player rated 300 points higher than me. It was a rook and pawn endgame and I was up a pawn. I had a 3 on 1 queenside majority, so I could pretty much force a protected passed pawn. oh well. next time i'll drive him into the ground.
Playing a stonger opponent acctually fires me up. When playing someone the same level as me or lower I tend not to focus and relax to much. A stronger rated oppenent forces me to step it up, take and things more serously.
Originally posted by Dance Master MC Do you feel when you play a game against someone 400 points higher than you intimidated at all? or does it push you to try harder against them?
I feel more intimidated by 1900s than 2000+ players for some reason.
Originally posted by Dutch Defense I keep losing to Korch (User 124624) and I want to keep trying to beat him. ðŸ˜
Bah, Korch is a wuss, I see loads of uber better moves in his games that he misses, 🙂
I never feel intimidated, I feel slightly less concerned when I play someone much higher rated as many have said because you expect the loss, I do get a little nervous about my moves when someone of a much lower rating is wiping the floor with me though but not really intimidated
If someone's that much higher than I am, as many people have already pointed out themselves, I feel more relaxed. I also watch out to make sure I don't try any stupid tricks or anything like that, but instead try to play a little more positional, paying attention to pawn structures and the like. I guess this is probably something I should do anyways.
I think facing higher rated players helps me, on here especially as i can research my moves in books and databases and really study a position in depth (which isnt possible over the board).
The real danger is facing players much lower than you, i ashamed to say i have pretty much dismissed an opponant before and lost to someone well below my level by simply not paying atention and making moves witth about 30 secs observation (a warning to you all and more fool me). I ended up playing so badly i would have been forced to play an enforced draw by repetition instead since i was so impressed i gave the guy the win and learnt a very valueable lesson early on about play on rhp.