As long as you challenge any opponent within the +/- 200 points rating from your's you have a very good chance to beat your opponent.

The secret according not to Hoyle but to me is how you respond to your opponen's move?

I for one, early in the morning at about 6 am, I  look at the moves that my opponents have made in a number of games. I then write down her/his move and also make a a diagram of the position, too long here to explain on how I do it.

I then over the next 6 to 8 hours analyze the move and prepare my response.

When I log in into the chess.com site, I review once more my response and reply.

My question is how do you prepare to respond to the move that your opponent has made?

Are you an impulsive player that looks at the position and reply right away?

Or are you taking a step back and analyze ?

For the benefit of all the players on this site I ask everyone to tell us on their motus operandi, or the way they do it to reply to a move from their opponent

I only wish that the more advanced players, 2000+ rating tell us their secret..

But if you play people around 200 mark, your average opponent gose down, and I think average opponent has just as much weight to it has rating. There is also timmaylivinalie who's rating is 0.

@ paul211 

I am not 2000+, I am 2000 minus. I just follow Anand (World Champion). I mean I follow the way of moves of Anand. But what is the way of Anand that is secret.

I enjoy making moves that develop/support other pieces, trading down to stronger players, and then working for a passed pawn or squeezing the queen for checkmate. No secret that as long as you dont make the ONE blunder that a stronger opponent can take advantage of, you can probably draw, and maybe even mate.

Believe what you like.  So long as you handle defeats well when they happen.

 I was not clear in my statement, I meant to say that if you play within the +/- 200 points difference with opponents, you can expect to win  at least half of the time or close to.

I personnally do play games with differences of 800 points as I really enjoy playing with new comers and see their stuff. And I have found a marvel from England a young player with I think has great potential in chess as he plays, à la Magnus Carlson. I am withholding his name for respect of confidentiality but if anyone is interested I will contact him and ask him if I can mention his name.

 Defeat is not a problem in chess, the game is similar to golf, there is always the next hole to play and at the end of the game a next game to play.

I look over my positions in a variety of ways depending on who I am playing and what we have agreed on before-hand.  Recently I have been setting up a board with my position and analysing there as to simulate an OTB game.

I am tactically minded, so i look for tactics to use and combos. I play positional till I see a tactic I can use. It takes me a few seconds to spot a tactic. I analyse for about 5 minutes to spot any potential responses, that would negate the tactic. If I spot those negation moves then i play positional till The position allows me to play the tactic.

 Its not really a big secret, its just hard to master. When they plan there moves, they are thinking of endgame positions. When thay see tactics that can force moves, they use it as a threat to promote pawn moves or defensive moves to promote weaknesses to be exploited later. Rarely will two masters play and fall for hidden tactics, as they expect the other player to make the best moves. At any rate that is how Josh Waitzkin desribed it. He said the game is won by the person who can handle building tension the longest without breaking the tension. He says the weaker player wants to relieve the tension faster.

 Just before making a move it is a good practice to review the opponent's probable answer and also to check again the next 2 moves or so to validate our final move, I have been also guilty of playing too quickly.

Secret is Study + practice = 2000 rating eventually. The more effort u put into these the better you get its that simple...

P.S. It helps to not fear any players ratings, just play ur bext chess and let whatever happen happen. Play as though u cant be beat basically even when u can and do hahaha.

I have a lot of knowledge/experience i gained from the pain of loses learned for which i then go over and figure out how i screwed it or how they out played me, which is complimented by learning about chess from books and watching higher rated players games that can help u improve and stop your weaknesses easier. It is fine to write out ur games, diagrams for me not needed, a good chess board do just as well. Point is write out your main line thoughts if u can be bothered if not just go over every game u play after its finnished and talk with ur opponent about there thoughts too and takes notes of what u come up with for refference and to help commit it to memory....

Evertytime i make a move i think ahead of the next step, i use the analyze board to help me. its a great way.

So your plan is to lose go three pawns down in the endgame and then hope your opponent blunders into mate?

The tough thing about correspondence chess is that you've really to be consistent. During a game that lasts over three weeks, I'll probably of been at the board in every state of mind known to humans. I have no particular way of making my moves, it just depends on how I feel about it on that day. However, I have stopped playing after a night out. I lost too many games by making that one daft move - ruins weeks of effort.

This seems to me the preparation that a gm faces before entering a tournament..it seems excellent, anyway I don't have time to make such study, so I prefer to learn something from my losses and mistakes and remember it for the next time, with that opponent or with another one.

In blitz I'm very (too) impulsive. In correspondence chess I use A LOT the analysis board, and try to calculate the 6-7-8 following moves, at the best I can. When the game is finished, I send it to analysis for possible variations, that I'd count for another game.