Win Against a Strong Opponent

#1000ELO #beat-strong-opponent #resign #aim #diary #my-progress

I wrote a very long post but it got lost since my connection is flaky at times. Sorry chess.com, but you could auto save drafts. I have already sent an email to support for that.

You see hashtags at the beginning of this post. I do not know if they really help. Maybe people can understand what the post is about when they see it. Since I found no way to write an intro to the blog, apart from describing it in my profile... that's my way. I cannot repeat in every post that this blog talks about my struggles and my victories. I do not want to write articles for beginners on how to mate a king with a rook and king, people like @RobRam do it better https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeGA3XFs4Zg . Writing is a way of being accountable, of recording what I am doing.

Now to the main topic I wanted to discuss. Beating a strong opponent. In a tournament, some random people that have a higher ELO, or somebody that simply wins every game when we play together. The most obvious suggestion in this last case is analyzing the games we did together and check what we did wrong. This is what I did in my last stream https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1595675113 , but I was lazy and used the engine game review. Better than no review at all! I also did quite some puzzles with the suggested themes. And you can hear me talk in Italian every now and then at the end of the video. While writing this post the first time I also found a couple of interesting articles,  https://www.chess.com/article/view/how-to-beat-a-much-stronger-opponent by @Gserper and https://www.chess.com/article/view/pay-attention-the-art-of-looking-your-opponent by @Silman
In the end the training did not work, and I lost the last game. I did not use other sources to investigate the best and worst opening of my opponent, like openingtree.com .
By the way, I am confident that by analyzing more thoroughly games against a player, and maybe in the future attempting openings where they are weak, could also help me winning other games, like general training will help me with any single opponent, including the one that always beats me. By the way, I have now a new idea, suggested here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Akas7N49gQ0 by @AGADMATOR, mainly to check some of the games lost by the player and studying in them, possibly mimicking what makes them uncomfortable. In general a good idea, but in my case I think my opponent blunders randomly against opponent they do not comfortable with. With me they are super confident to win, so they play more relaxed and... you know. It won't work, but it stays in the back of my mind

Other topics to discuss...

I stumbled on a forum thread about resigning https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/to-resign-or-not-to-resign-that-is-the-question-2 and I really do not understand why people at my rating or only a little higher resign.

• Even if you are down material, your opponent could still blunder and you could win or get a draw
• The more you and your opponent resign, the less you get the chance to play an endgame. No matter if with balanced material or not, it is an endgame, and the more you play them, the better you get
• There are some wonderful mating combinations that never see light because somebody resigns when we are starting it. It is so nice to mate, so much more satisfying than winning because the opponent resigned.

So, all in all, while some see resigning as a form of respect, for me it is a lesson lost. Not to mention people that ask you continuously to resign when they play with you, is this respect? When you start a game you commit to play the time allocated for it.

Some days ago I played possibly my worst game ever after having partied the night before. Doing my 22 correct puzzles in puzzle rush was not enough, in the end I did not have the concentration to play. I played like I play blitz. Do you have any recommendations on tricks on preventing playing random games when you are not fit for a game? Apparently doing decently in puzzle rush is not enough.

I have been overwhelmed with daily games for a while, now I have decided to accept one daily challenge per day. Playing should be fun, when I had 20 or more daily games to play it felt like a chore. Do you have a strategy for preventing playing too many daily games, but still play some?

Last but not least, I did not forget completely to train pins, even if my main focus has been another. I found a course here on chess.com, try it out if you are a diamond member (otherwise I would rather go for other courses with more material in one lesson). It is not easy, it is one of those courses I will have to repeat! https://www.chess.com/lessons/champion-tactics-with-gm-wolff-pins-and-skewers

If you want me to write you a message when I write a new post, let me know, I will surely do it!

So, it's already late, I wrote less than the first time I wrote this post, but... I wanted it to be done.