Lots of positivity in this thread, which is nice. But...
Playing against a much stronger player can be very demoralizing, especially in positions where the opponent knows the typical opening plans and can almost automatically play their pieces to the right square. You spend ages looking for a plan, they respond instantly, you know they've seen this position a thousand times before, and your heart sinks to the floor.
Still, even if this type of game ends up as a crushing win for your opponent, take the time to look at the opening and anywhere else in the game you may have gone wrong.
@MrGood8 No Mrgood you are going down. The only question is when and where not if.
#11
It’s just a game :) Don’t take it so seriously.
Timegod
How shattering I can't win them all
In all honesty, I get anxious when the game starts no matter the rating of my opponent. I'm way too concerned about the opening my opponent will choose. Anyhow, the stress tends to leave after like 7 moves. Plus, if I find myself in a losing position, I feel way more comfortable than I would be against a lower rated opoonent.
Firstly, I want to specify that I'm talking about Rapid, which is what I mainly play. (Longer times often result in me having to resign due to not having to finish and I don't think long enough fo rthe time to benefit me most of the time. Shorter times are too short for me to be able to think at all.) Personally I have been stuck in the low 1300s as far as rank is concerned until recently. Until then, I always had a lot of struggle against 1400+ ranked players to a point where I could almost never beat them with the exception of a few flukes where I would win. However, I have recently been playing against people of higher ratings than myself (mainly in the 1500s). I have won most of these games. I'm now at 1399 (my highest ever) at the time of this post, so this has helped me rank up. In one of the games I beat someone whose rank was in the 1700s, which is definitely not something that I could do consistently, but I did it that one time nevertheless. Now I purposefully try playing against people with ranks in the 1500s. I think it's all due to a changed mindset. I no longer care about the fact that their rank is above mine. This helps me to be more relaxed and casual, which yields me better gameplay results. Also I have soomehow stopped myself from mentally giving up when I blunder as easily as I used to. This means that I can often still win a losing game, although this is less relevant to the topic in discussion. Anyway, I think that your mindset really affects how you play against higher ranked opponents. If you can ignore their higher rank, you'll learn more from them and you have a higher chance at winning as you'll be able to think clearly. One thing to keep in mind is also that everybody makes mistakes. Your higher ranked opponent may make a blunder that gives you the win, even if you are at a major loss, so keep this in mind. That's how I think about higher ranked opponents now. It's just a game against another player, nothing else matters too much.
When I go against higher rated players, I almost feel more relaxed, because I'm not as worried about losing rating points. I honestly think I tend to play better with better players, because I actually take a lot of time to think both OTB and online.
Just know, everything can happen, being lower rated means there is a higher probability you might loose, but there is always a chance ;)
see this:
IM Eric Rosen loses to a 900 rated player on Lichess, remembers why it's important to connect rooks in the opening
www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/9uh5g1/im_eric_rosen_loses_to_a_900_rated_player_on/www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoUvoE8Fp7A
