why are lower rated players harder to beat?

@kpcollins86 I understand how you feel, because when I first started learning chess more than a decade ago, I played regularly with a close friend and at first we would play open games and I would beat him in short order and I felt good because I was putting the things I was studying into practice.

My friend on the other hand didn't study chess so instead he adapted by playing closed positions and crab opening style moves with pawns. The games would become very long and I would be slowly squeezing and repositioning pieces against his pawn line on his 3rd rank and trying to create a pawn break so I could get an open file for my rooks and finally finish the game. It was difficult and occassionally I would blunder and lose a piece and end up losing the game. 

This was an important and necessary part of my chess learning however and now I am always comfortable whenever I am faced with trash openings. In fact I prefer facing them compared to mainlines or sharp variations. Remember your opening fundamentals and take your time to think about the position, look for your opponent's threats and look at your own opportunities. There are basically 3 fundamentals in the opening - contest the center, develop your pieces and protect your king. When your opponents willing give you a time advantage, a space advantage or a development advantage you should thank them. Use that time to complete your development and then initiate an attack! 

If your opponents are offering free pawns slow down and think, look at potential consequences of accepting the gambit and remember you can usually decline them too! Often when you decline a gambit you can transpose back to a mainline or sideline opening that you might find more comfortable.

I saw you lost a 30mins game to scholar's mate but only use 30 seconds on the clock - that is a valuable lesson in how to manage your time and pay attention to your opponent's moves. If you take an attitude of learning from your games then you will only improve.

It is if you do it uncontrolled.  This is why traps work and why they do them.  When I see "punish" I think of an attacking aggressive playstyle, which I have also.  Problem is when you are unfamiliar with the position you will miss a variation and lose.  So take your time and stay away from "hope chess". Don't make a move hoping your opponent will follow up with something bad. Always assume they will make the best move regardless of level.

According to Bobby Fischer, "...Now chess is completely dead. It is all just memorisation and prearrangement. .."  It seems there is a fair bit of truth to this.  Without memorizing tons of things, I find it impossible to improve, which wouldn't be so bad, but my memory is beginning to fail me.  I wonder if Random Fischer Chess would be something worth looking into, or would it just be more frustration?  Checkers doesn't interest me.  Maybe I'm SOL.

If lower rated players were hard to beat then they wouldn't be lower rated players. 

It isn't any more complicated than that. If you can't overcome obviously unsound play in the opening how in the world can you expect to exploit it in the rest of the game? 

Getting too into openings is a good example of a little knowledge being a dangerous thing. 

If you want to avoid whatever trap is trending on youtube just avoid e pawn (maybe even d pawn) openings/defenses. Start doing a reti setup or something else where the common traps don't work.  Worry about opening theory when you are playing well enough to where the advantage gained by it is significant. 

Fischer was talking about championship play.  For us mere mortals there is plenty of variation and unknowns in our games using standard set up.

But maybe the question should be: "what does it mean to punish poor play?" For example: when I play rapid games against members of my club, I notice that lower level players (say 1800) play inefficiently in the opening. They make moves like ...a6 or ...h6, because they're scared of some pin that they don't need to be scared about. How to punish this? Not by immediately trying for tactics or going on some sort of crazy attack. What you can do is just develop as fast as you can and by the end we're done with our development, our opponent is still busy (because he lost time with that ...a6 and/or ...h6 move). So I punish those moves maybe 10 moves later by being the first with my rooks on the only open file and having the better middlegame. 

If you notice the above, you'll notice I'm not talking about any specific moves. It can be done on opening principles and a solid understanding of middlegame strategy alone. 

Also, most traps can be sidestepped, no? Opening traps usually start with someone leaving something apparently 'hanging' which turns out to be a trap. You don't have to take it. And most gambit lines, where traps might exist, can be declined. Of course in 1. e4 e5 it is not always so easy and energetic play is right, but that is also one of my reasons for teaching my own pupils to play 1. d4 and just enjoy life.

I personally don't find it problematic to beat lower rated people. I don't mean players hundreds of points lower than me: in my games 2100s are a nice snack, but 2300+ are wizards of chess. One of my friends once commented after he played against me that I don't win against him, but that he always loses himself. I think that is the key to it. If you have a higher rating, your chess understanding is probably a bit better. At some point you'll see his mistake and you can capitalize. You don't need to overplay or do anything special.

There is the typically cyclical upsurge of traps in the opening resources for the beginner/intermediate player and many jump into the bandwagon. For a "serious" player, this is just annoying. As simple as that...

Avoiding tricks is easier than facing a good strategy.

Read carefully the CM's comment.

If you were 1300 and tilted to get to a lower level and now think the reason you aren't getting back to 1300 is that worse players are harder to beat, well... you are still on tilt. 

@kpcollins, in this thread you've got some players, who may be lower rated, that are agreeing with what you are saying and you are also receiving valuable advice for free from better players, including a titled Candidate Master. I suggest that you consider the good advice carefully and reflect on how you can use it to help yourself.

try games with more time. 

👍

Variation is good for the mind!  Yes try Fischer Chess!  It changes the game and the way u think.  Try other games!  Games keep the mind elastic.  So why not Scrabble, poker, backgammon (luck and skill )  Boggle, and exploding kittens with friends.  And of course try GO!!!

ik ben een beginner

A true master of a craft takes all situations and handles them. How can you ask an opponent to play the way you want them to? 

I am 500 appx. I struggle with this. But I do play well and have skill. But mistakes and lack of deep high level experience is evident. Being underestimated is a real advantage.