Do you consider yourself to be a classy, reserved traditional chess player, or a rough, tough street chess player.  Whats the difference.  A tournament chess player plays main line openings.  They play reserved  in a sense waiting on their opponent to make a mistake, then capitalizing.  A street chess player on the other hand plays lots of off beat, irregular lines that may not be that good, but they have a psycological advantage when they play them against their opponent.  .  These openings include the Frankenstein-dracular variation of the vienna game, the danish gambit (THE BLACKMAR DIEMAR GAMBIT) The latvian gambit etc.  Sometimes These types of players like playing in parks playing blitz, or bullet chess for a few dollars.  These types of players don't care about rating points.  Victory is what these players crave.  (A little bit of trash talking amongst the weaker street players tends to happen alot.  These types of players typically don't care about pawn formations (doubled pawns, isolated pawns etc.)  They typically have a good opening, a superb middle game, but an outright crappy endgame. These players generally like to attack They could also use some work on their defensive game 

A Tournament chess player on the other hand is a player who plays Normal openings.  ie the english, the caro kann, the sicilian, kings indian defence etc.  these types of players care a great deal about ratings.   These players have an ok opening and middlegame, but they compensate by having an exceptionally strong endgame.  The can defend really good.  These players however have a bit of issue going for the inititive  They would prefer to make their opponent pay for a mistake, missed opportunities    

If an average street player goes into a tournament they might do okay but if a tournament player plays in a street players territory they could get destroyed

What type of style are you and why?  I would say that i'm a combination of the two, leaning slightly more on the side of the street chess style. 

Neither.  Actually, if they can slaughter tournament players so easy, why don't they play in em?

This is just a speculation that I've seen.  the Tournament environment is stressful, and the street player may be out of their element, and vice versa

I wouldn't know cause I've haven't either. Or anywhere else.

lol.. you are absolutely right!!!!

 Street players are (generally) good at blitz, bad at long games, and tournament players are (generally) the other way around. And I'd think it would be the other way around, because tourney players do a lot of studying whereas street players, although they might study, usually go by instinct.

I think of a tournament player not as reserved but more practical.  They try to get a true evaluation and try to find a logical and best move regardless of if it's a sacrifice and attack or a quiet maneuvering game.  They try to get every ounce of advantage out of every move and move order.

In my mind the street player is just playing for fun and is less concerned about the correctness of what's going on as he is about tactics, traps, etc.

Ive played plenty of 'street' players. I would say that the correct comparison would be that street palyers play just like tournament players, but are simply inferior in every stage of the game.

Both and neither. 

I've run into a few who have a basically sound game - probably forged by trial and error instead of instruction or study. 

Their openings are generally unsophisticated, but you can do pretty well with simple development to get a playable game.  In the middlegame they play a sharp and aggressive style relying on simple tactics, but lacking much in the way of strategical concepts.

Their endings tend to be very weak - they know the basic mates when a Q or R ahead, but if they can't quickly promote a pawn they seem lost in an even ending.

So I'm not disagreeing with your basic point, but there are street players whose skills are surprising considering their informal background in the game.

Anybody else think of checkmates when they read this thread?  Warning: Profanity.

http://www.ucbcomedy.com/videos/play/3469/checkmates

This would be awesome if this were a real movie!!!

That was hilarious!

rofl!.............some poor homeless bum hustling da streets 4 wonga fo' shizzle ..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qghCuuSBMT4