How To Defeat A 1900+ Rated Chess Player

His power reading... it's over 1900!

During a recent tournament, I was brought face to face with an opponent with a rating of 1925. That is very far outside of my usual opponent range of 1400-1650. Up until this match, I have only beaten one player ranked in the low 1700 range. That win was due to an extraordinary combination of luck, concentration and a bad offensive strategy from my opponent.

If it was a miracle to beat a 1700 then how I could I hope to win against a 1900? After this win, I took a long look at what went right in order to understand the successful steps that I took.

Looking at this game's Key Points:

• As Black, I developed an offense prior to defensive Castling.
• My offense created defensive ruptures for White.
• The center of the board became my staging ground.
• White tried to take control of the wrong side of the board.
• I was able to bait and block White's Queen.
• Maintained a superior offensive position.

At any point, I was expecting an avalanche of offense from White  My intention was to keep White in enough trouble to capitalize on the breaches in it's defense with my Queen and Knight combination.

Let's look at the first Key Point: Developed Offense Prior To Defense As Black.

As Black, I developed offense instead of using traditional defense in order to increase my chances against a highly rated player. My friend Alex would have screamed at me for using such a risky technique! He firmly believed that Black was "one move behind" in the game of chess and needed to create a strong defense as a result of this. Most of the time I agree with this idea. Yet, this was an unusual match up. I needed to be actively pursuing a higher rated opponent across the board instead of allowing them to comfortably set up their own offensive maneuvering.

This technique was rewarded was White broke up it's own Castle pawns to fight off my advances - which I quickly withdrew and then reset for another attack.

Now, Alex can relax! I have Castled before White. I have also managed to get White to move two of it's three Castle pawns. Now, I can seamlessly transition into a strong offensive position using the center of the board. First, I had to destroy the King's Indian. Then, I got the Black Queen into the game to finish the previous trade.

Key Point Three: Create A Staging Point For Main Offense. The staging point does not have to be the center of the board. Usually the staging point is nearby the opponent's Castle at the left or right of the board. In this case, the Queen has a diagonal line of attack directly through White's Castle from the center of the board.

Now things get interesting. White has to get it's Queen in the game and break my control of the center of the board. I needed to successfully corral the oncoming offense from a very good player and keep the center board.

The image above shows White's first attempt to push away all of my carefully built offense in order to retake the center of the board. As my Knight attacks the Queen my opponent has a choice to make. That decision is in the image below.

Key Point Five: Bait And Block White's Queen. In doing this at this point White is in deep trouble. By exploiting the unprotected black pawn White has taken itself completely out of position. This type of sacrifice allowed me to retain board control and then "jam" the Queen in a useless part of the board.

This last image is the point at which White quit the game. I do not like it's Knight's position. It is preventing a checkmate. After the match, I ran some CPU bot matches against this position. It would have meant another 15 to 20 more moves w/lengthy Rook trades. However, I had managed to take and keep control to the point that a 1900+ player felt that it was time to quit.

A higher rated chess player can be beaten by keeping a clear strategy in mind. It comes down to remaining focused on advancing your offense, countering opponent offense and using bait to block any potential momentum shifts.