Chess Psychology

This is a drastic digression from the central theme of my previous blogs but I think the content I'm sharing will be entertaining and useful for a large audience. I was being torn to shreds by a 1200 rated player. I do not intend to deride players of that level but everything is relative for a national master (NM) as I was losing to someone far below my rating. Yet again this is an encouragement for underdogs facing titled players, or maybe, a warning to the other titled players not to doze off playing lower rated players. Like an ancient tribe hanging their dead enemies and placing them in front of their territory to deter rivals, may this debacle from a titled players' off day serve as a reminder that higher rated opponents can collapse under serious pressure. 

Without further delay, I will present to the reader the game and recapitulate some crucial points and advice for both higher and lower rated opponents...

*Firstly, in the final position Rg6 would have been met resplendently by Qxg6!! and if hxg6? Bxe6! and Rh3# is unstoppable. Perhaps he resigned a bit early?

What can we learn from the excellent effort from my opponent?

• Play aggressive, bold moves. Be confident in your calculations, be mindful of blunders and pressurize your opponent with attacking moves. The higher rated opponent generally finds this unnerving because he wants the "inferior" player to succumb to fear.
• Passivity is the absolute gong of death when playing higher rated opponents.
• Notice I've repeatedly use the phrase "higher rated". This is because rating really is only a number and everything at the chessboard comes down to strong moves. A "higher rated" opponents may not be stronger than you at all on any given game. Remember with optimism, strong moves, and luck you can take down anyone. 

A useful tool to facilitate the above points is a creative but not dubious opening. Exactly what my opponent did. 

I have seen slightly lower rated opponents try to memorize forced draw lines or try to simplify the position early on. While this works on occasion, and is frustrating for the higher rated player, in the long run respecting higher rated opponents to an extent which a draw always the satisfactory result, limits your ability to grow as a player and pull off truly spectacular upsets.

Finally, for titled (and anyone facing a player with a vastly lower rating) players, please don't play for tricks and traps assuming that the opponent will blunder and therefore justify their rating.  That's a terrible concept which will get ignominiously punished, regularly. I attribute this fortunate save to my uncanny luck which obviously shouldn't be tested frequently... Bottom line, if the underdog fearlessly (but not recklessly) attacks the favorite, the game could take an unexpected turn if the favorite has a momentary lapse in concentration.

Books recommendations for further improvement... (The most effective books for learning how to compete against stronger/weaker opposition are on psychology, therefore all of my recommendations advocate the psychological approach in chess.)

Chess For Tigers by IM Simon Webb, approx. rating range 1200-2400. 

I am extremely fortunate to own this now rare book. It's analogy of rabbit, heffalump, and tiger chess players is among the most versatile concepts that is applicable to real life. For instance, rabbit chess players (lower-rated) are small and nimble but weak. Chess-wise how should one go about tackling a rabbit? An all out chase is risky because (according to Webb) rabbits have sharp teeth and possibly wound the tiger. The correct solution is to patiently wait and ambush the rabbit. Then pounce when the time is ripe. In chess, I've interpreted this as avoiding highly complicated positions with high probability of erring from both sides and instead making safe (but not passive) moves and waiting for my opponent to make a concession. This sort of analogy is used for other animals as well in the book and he enlightens the reader by showing real game examples of the mentioned approached. In all, this is a great book!

Winning with Chess Psychology GM Pal Benko, Good for All Levels.

All great books on chess psychology have efficaciously conveyed there ideas through, metaphors, analogies, aphorisms, axioms and of course... Practical examples from games. Benko draws on his own experience, conclusions with how to play against stronger players, weaker players, but also women players and computers. Though the latter might make more sense for an older generation of players who knew that once the engines were beatable. Chess is likened to art, war, fight, sport, and even life. Each has an entire chapter debating the nuances and showing the style of chess most associated with it. And of course, historical games expressing the ideas in question. Then there are chapters on other purely psychological phenomena such as time trouble, blunders, the "tactical-draw-offer" as well as tournament situations and how to combat unethical deception elicited by the opponent. Plus, in the chapter on Psychology in the Opening Benko discusses what openings to employ against an opponent desperate for a draw among other issues. There are several other chapters elucidating psychology in the endgame, developing your chess style and many more. (there are 17 Chapters in all ) Finally there is a list at the end of the book delineating 24 commonsense principles of psychology which summarizes the book in a compact format with easy to remember principles. In my opinion, this is one of the best books ever written on chess.

Psychology in Chess GM Nikolai Krogius, approx. rating range 2000-2400.

In my opinion, this is quite a complex book which requires a certain amount of chess understanding (which is why I recommend it for a more advanced rating range) it's not as focused on beautifully expressing concepts of chess psychology to real life in an eloquent and humorous manner. Yet this is an incredibly useful book to have as it scientifically delves deep into the core of human psychology itself and investigates the subtle causes of all forms of chess mistakes. The game annotations are unique and frequently the aspect of making moves that discomfort the opponents disposition are taken into account. This is a fine work on chess psychology from a Soviet Grandmaster and I would recommend it to all advanced chess players.

I encourage you to post your own experience of defeating a much higher rating opponent with some explanations of your decisions. I also welcome anyone to share the excruciating shock and distaste of losing to a lower rated player who fought stronger than anticipated.