How to be a giant killer in chess.

Rating is considered incredibly important in tournaments and online play. You see someone with 200+ rating points and you expect to lose and get destroyed, but how can we change the way we approach ratings?

A good friend and opponent from a tournament I once played said "Ratings are just a scale of how good someone has played in the past". Which I completely agree on, ratings are the best guess we have, key word: "Guess". Ratings are imperfect, 900 rated players can play a 99% accuracy game, 2000s can blunder their queens, etc. Just because someone has a higher rating than you does not mean by any standard that they are guaranteed to win, or that it'll be any easier. 

Yes, ratings are important, they are our goals, what we strive for, train on, that little boost of dopamine in seeing your numbers go up after a good game, where you can look back on your progress and see definite and genuine results. However, too often in online chess do we focus on the rating only, you cant see the person, so you stress over the rating, and its easy to forget... they are still human, they will make mistakes you can punish.

It doesnt matter what your rating is as long as you understand that simple concept, they are human, you are human. No one is perfect, so how can we punish that and truly become a "Giant killer" in chess?

1. I am a player in chess who is the cause of many upsets, blowing through far higher rated opponents, but how did I do that? With this first basic rule, if you make 10 threats, they will blunder. Small threats or big threats, it doesn't matter, no matter what if you are able to make 10 concise threats they will blunder during it. 

2. Study your tactics and play as aggressive as humanly possible. The reason so many of these players are so good at chess is that they can play long drawn out games without blundering, don't give them what they want. Even if you don't have a good understanding of how to be aggressive and attack in chess you will be able to do it. Make constant threats, dont make passive waiting moves, move your pieces closer to their king or board so you can get tactics whenever possible. 

3. Learn gambits or special lines, take the fight to them. They have studied openings for a long time, if you take them out of their comfort zone, they will make an early opening mistake.

4. This is the most important one and one I have needed to work on for a while, "Don't jump the gun". You cant get too eager, I have thrown away many winning positions because I rushed and did not fully calculate when I knew I was winning. Even though the obvious move often is the best move, it doesn't mean you should EVER, assume they don't have a saving resource. Because a cornered lion is a lot more dangerous than a hunting lion if that makes sense.

Hope some of this makes sense! If you dont understand any of this or you have questions, feel free to ask! Good luck on your goals and go cause some upsets!!!