Well... playing a higher rated opponent first means you may target a draw. Then, play drawish openings, exchange queens, keep opposed coloured bishops... play sad, uninteresting games...
By the way, I remarked I play worse against higher rated opponents, and lower rated opponents tend to do so with me I believe...
Originally posted by RenarsNo. You are much more likely to do well if your play is active and aggressive and most importantly if you spend time on your critical moves. If you play defensively they will have an easy ride.
is there any sound logic in believing that cautious defensive approach against (much) higher rated opponents works better, i.e. you escape from being knocked out in under 30 moves? while it cannot be a winning one, it seems to have worked on some of the occasions..
They may well be playing quickly against you (especially if they have a high game load) so you have a chance of creating an advantage if you work hard. The big question is if you can hold onto and exploit that advantage once they wake up to what's happening and fight back. But it's a lot easier for the lower player to win from a sharp position with an advantage, than it is from a cramped defensive dull position...they'll just squeeze the juice and take the game.
I guess you'd be hard pressed to find an over 1800 who hadn't been whacked by someone two hundred or more points below them at some stage....and I don't mean taken out by cheats, I mean losing to a lower rated who gave it their all. Sure some 2000+ players with small game loads who joined as a strong players will exceptions to this idea...but it happens
Personally, I've been on both sides of the coin - having taken the occasional higher rated scalp and been whacked by a 1200 when I'm at 1500.
Play an opening you usually play.
For some reason weaker players play odd opening moves thinking
their better (higher graded) opponent knows all the theory.
They don't.
Don't try and mix it, play solid sensible chess.
Don't touch your pawns. Weaker players destroy their middle game
positions with thoughtless pawn moves.
There is nothing more annoying for a higher rated player than a
weaker player who does not make blunders.
The onus is on the stronger to prove he is the better player.
Develop, castle and leave your pawns alone.
Fight for key central squares and open files.
You lost this one 'cos you refrained from castling on or around
move 8. Your 5.f3 was crap - 5.Nc3. You have moved your d & e-pawns.
No more pawn moves until the Rooks can see each other.
Your opponent developed and caught your uncastled King in the centre.
Bad play by you, you made it easy for him.
Your opponent missed a mate in one on move 13.
Originally posted by greenpawn34thanks for this GP34 ! and for your time looking at one of my games... you have picked the one I'm far from being proud of! yeah, I've learned the power of castling...
Play an opening you usually play.
The onus is on the stronger to prove he is the better player.
You lost this one 'cos you refrained from castling on or around
move 8. Your 5.f3 was crap - 5.Nc3. You have moved your d & e-pawns.
No more pawn moves until the Rooks can see each other.
Your opponent developed and caught your uncastled King in t ...[text shortened]... entre.
Bad play by you, you made it easy for him.
Your opponent missed a mate in one on move
There is, I'm afraid, no strategy available which overcomes, or even neutralises, large disparities of ability in chess. If you find one, bottle it - because it'll make you a millionaire 🙂
Greenpawn has it about right - play classical chess by putting your pieces on good squares, and avoid creating weaknesses, especially by unnecessary pawn moves. Highly-rated players are rarely bothered about flashy attacks. Why risk getting it wrong when the other guy will make a mistake soon enough? So we wait, and wait.
But occasionally, as Mahout rightly says, we get it wrong. The causes of this rarely have much to do with one's opponent though. We are more than capable of turning a position into a squashed banana without any help from our opponent. Complacency, lack of attention, game overload are all factors in this. However, one caution: a highly-rated player may stumble into a 'lost' position; but the lower-rated player still has to win it.
For example, take this game of mine recently. Until White plays Nf3-d2, I'm pretty much dead. I've played sloppily, and deserve to be squashed. Indeed Nf3-d2 is a plausible-looking move. But it's fatally flawed - and against a highly-rated player, you won't be given a second chance. So after Bxg2, White gets trounced instead.
Game 6289473
Now another game, my worst-ever loss - with a 1000pt rating gap 😲 I'm not sure it was quite that wide at the time, but no matter - it was plenty wide enough. My Bg5 is bad; my Bh4 is just dreadful - played lazily and without thought. Even so, I remember thinking: Black may not see the win if I complicate a bit. So I sac'd the N. Alas for me, B wasn't distracted. See for yourself here, and laugh out loud 😕😕
Game 6050220
- Joined
- 12 Nov 06
- Moves
- 74414
Against a higher rated opponent you are probably going to lose anyway, therefore you are free to try anything.
Go for the win, attack, go for that sac that might or might not work.
Complications increase the winning chances for both sides 🙂
Here are some examples:
Game 6088166 17.f4!!
Game 4446698
sometimes you can play a crap game and still beat a higher-ranked opponent. at the time this game finished, i was 1110 and he was 1768:
I was playing Black.
I should add that my overall record against this opponent is a humbling 1+0=5-
this may sound a bit strange but i often play better against higher-rated opponents, and i think partly it is because i want to give them a good game, not just another easy move-by-numbers win. against lower-rated players i often move quickly and thoughtlessly, and sometimes pay the price.
Originally posted by greenpawn345 Nxc6 bxc6 6 e5 is another acceptable Scotch line (I like it better than the Two Knights).
Play an opening you usually play.
For some reason weaker players play odd opening moves thinking
their better (higher graded) opponent knows all the theory.
They don't.
Don't try and mix it, play solid sensible chess.
Don't touch your pawns. Weaker players destroy their middle game
positions with thoughtless pawn moves.
There is nothing mor ...[text shortened]... 19. Ke1f2 Qd5d2 20. Kf2f1 Bg4e2 21. Kf1g1 Be2d3 22. h3 Re3e2[/pgn]
After you played f3, you should have been thinking of Queen side castling and should have played Be3, Qd2, O-O-O before you even thought of pushing the f pawn to f4. It was fine where it was, protecting the e-pawn, blocking access to g4 and being ready to help support a King side pawn storm.