How to Beat Titled Masters/Overpowered Players????

Hello everyone,

In this blog we are going to explore how to beat titled masters and overpowered players.

If you check this blog here: https://www.chess.com/blog/leonquinplayz/list-of-titled-masters-i-beat-and-drew, you will see that I have beaten so many titled players. For example, I beat FM Fabrice Wantiez (@FabriceWantiez) twice and NM Mark Kurtzman (@Brutalis) three times.

As of 12/18, 12:00 AM PST, I beat 1 WFM, 4 CMs, 1 WIM (equal requirements as CM but woman), 7 NMs, 6 FMs, and 2 IMs. I drew 1 CM, 2 NMs, 1 FM, and 1 IM.

So how?

1. STUDY CHESS SERIOUSLY. In order to beat titled players like this, you need to study hard. I mean, very hard. These titled players are all overpowered --- their titles don't come easily. In fact, only very few players are titled. Less than 1% of players in the US are National Masters (NMs). So you really need to study.

Find books. I use Yuri Averbakh's books on endgames. Lev Polugaevsky's The Sicilian Labyrinth is a really good choice. As NM @EnergeticHay (Jason L) recommended, GM Jacob Aagaard's Grandmaster Preparation series are also really good.

Try to find good openings. Try openings that have high win rates. STUDY THEM CAREFULLY. 

Here's an example of how I punished a 2000 for ignoring opening lines:

So make sure to study opening theory. Instead of trying out different openings, try limiting down your opening choice to ONE. YES, ONE. You want to master one opening and one opening only for each response, and get it to the point which you only have one response for a certain move. For example, I play 1. e4 as white and if they play 1... e5, I play Vienna Game. (2. Nc3). If they play 1... c5, I play 2. f4 (McDonnell Attack). Yes, I do play Smith-Morra Gambit and Lasker-Dunne Attack in bullet games, but I'm talking about blitz/rapid/classical here. Although you have so many choices to play, play only one (blitz/rapid/classical) and NO MORE THAN 3 (bullet) so that you master what you learned. Bruce Lee is right: "I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times." You need to study, study, study.

Yes, tactics are important. But also is theory. Here's an example of what happened to Samuel Reshevsky, one of the world's top GMs at his time, lost in 11 moves to Fischer.

Yes, Reshevsky learned an important lesson here: theory is equally important as tactics and practice.

It is important to study motifs like the Greek sacrifice or Lasker's Double Bishop Sacrifice. They will help you to win a lot. SERIOUSLY. THESE MOTIFS ARE ESSENTIAL.

A great motif here:

Even the 12-time Italian champion, Stefano Tatai, got crushed in 14 moves!!! Is GM Viktor Korchnoi too good? Well, yes. But in this case, white lost the game due to a simple blunder.

So you need to understand and master these motifs. THESE ARE ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL!!!!!!!!

Make sure to study theory and tactics carefully. YOUR DIAMOND MEMBERSHIP (or whatever membership, if you have one), shouldn't be wasted! As a 2200, I don't have a membership, and I wanted one so badly (but my parents didn't give it to me.  Make sure to study, practice, play, analyze, read, and APPLY EVERYTHING YOU LEARNED! Make sure to study hard! Devote a lot of time to chess if you really want to become overpowered.

2. Mental tactics. All these tactics here are way less significant than studying hard, but they do work well. 

Basically, you want to have the other opponent proud or irritated so they will be more prone to making mistakes.

Check this blog here: https://www.chess.com/blog/leonquinplayz/totally-destroying-a-fm-advantage-from-start-to-end I destroyed FM Fabrice Wantiez (@FabriceWantiez). How? I irritated him with my positional play (I AM EXTREMELY AGGRESSIVE AND ATTACKING) and he gave everything he got and launched an attack against me. However, it failed miserably because he dropped pieces. 

Here's what a friend of mine, Doug (@Flickas) wrote:

"Very nice post. You might want to not deride your opponent so much but it reminds me of the young Fischer 😊. The Grob attack is one of the worst chess openings that is not just losing and your solid positional play caused your opponent to overreact and play overly aggressive chess to try and beat you.
Excellent insight into your game. I am impressed by your talent,".

The 9th world champion, Tigran Petrosian, intentionally played a terrible opening line and caused Fischer to be overconfident. Then, he crushed Fischer.

Irritation is a good way to provoke your opponent. You want to provoke them (not physically) so they lose to you.

GM Miguel Najdorf (another top world player) "faked" out so many times to daze his opponents so they lose to him.

Really good tactic to learn here.

3. Flagging. As online chess players, we normally play fast games. I am a huge fan of bullet games and I flagged opponents so many times.

It is very important to learn how to flag.

Here's my best example of flagging.

Flagging techniques.

1. Peskiness. Be pesky and always create threats, especially in bullet games. You want to force their clock to run down.

2. Crazy/Wild/Aggressive Opening lines. You want to create threats (and one of the good ways is to chose spicy openings/lines), and these openings can force your opponent to think much.

3. Checks. Try to keep checking them when they are low on time. Do this so that they are forced to spend more time dealing with the checks.

4. Intentional sacrifice bombs. You can see it above. NOTE: DON'T DO THIS IN AN INCREMENTED GAME! You WILL LOSE. Only do it WHEN THEY ARE LESS THAN 5 SECONDS, generally.

So try to flag them. Great way.

4. Play seriously. Be calm, be careful, be patient. Don't be like FM @FabriceWantiez (see above), trying to run me over with an attack, only finding himself destroyed.

5. DON'T PLAY TOO MANY VARIANTS!!! Make sure that you don't get ruined by some stupid check (as a result of 3-check), too slow development (like in horde), etc.

So this is it. The best way is to study hard. These other tips are really good, and please keep learning and improving!!!!