I am not a strong player...yet. But I will say this. If he indeed boasts, he is already off balance. Over confidence can defeat you. If I were you, I would play carefully. Play to win, yes. But do not frown at forcing a stalemate. If he "should easily beat" you, then a stalemate will still dent his prideful armour.
Sounds like to me you'll win this.
I'd go with the Ponziani because it doesn't have a good rep. There are Ponziani resources in the Ponziani Power group if you'd care to join!
In my experience when playing someone for the first time when you have no idea how good they are you can get odd ideas (too defensive or too aggressive) and in general not play your normal game. Whether you win or lose, this approach can lead to errors you don't normally make.
My advice is to tell yourself to play your regular game and pretend he's as good as you are. That way you wont try any cheap tricks, but you also wont be overly cautious and become passive. If he beats you when you're playing a reasonable game then he deserves the win. This would be my approach.
Thank you guys for your insights. I guess you are right: If I keep thinking about finding some "cliché" way to take advantage of the situation I'll loose the focus on the important thing: play good chess. I'll play for the Win but won't refuse to take the draw if I get the chance.
I'd rather get defeated fair and square to a more precise tactical calculation or to deeper strategic notions than having to blame myself for making a dumb mistake.
If this game actually happens, I'll try to note it down to post it here no matter the result.
Hello everyone, I'll start with the brief version of this first: I'm going to play an OTB game with a much stronger player than me (about 600 points). He is out of practice and I'm not, but by the difference I should get destroyed anyway. Despite of this, I want to offer as much resistance as possible.
What do you guys suggest? I specially need advice in the following:
- What white opening should I choose?
(These are the ones I feel more comfortable with- English opening, RuyLopez, Ponziani, or Nf3 to keep it flexible. The thing with e4 openers is he may go Sicilian and theory is not on my side)
- Should I play an aggressive, tactical game or just focus on not making mistakes and playing solid more defensive style?
- What should my mindset be? I've red Mr Silman's "psychological meanderings’" chapter over and over but any advice will be welcome.
For those of you who want to know the backstage of this game read on, if not you can cut it here. Thanx!
So... My brother has this co-worker who likes to talk about the multiple gorgeous women he has had, the amazing success in his previous work places (that he left because he got bored) and stuff like that. Everyone doubts on his credibility but they have no real way to prove whether he exaggerates or not.... until he talked about chess. He said he used to play in clubs and according to the people he beat; he should have been rated around 2300 ELO.
That’s where my brother found at least ONE thing that could be put to the test. If he really is as good as he says, he should easily beat a 1600-1700 player, right? (Yeah, don’t believe my turned based ELO, in real life I don’t get several days to think my moves)
So this might be just a random game with a stranger, but believe me, there are several guys who want this brag-master revealed; and I’d be happy to oblige.