Is there any chance that a 1300 rated player can beat a 2700 rated player?

I've also known players whose playing strength seemed to vary with the opponent in a fairly consistent manner.

I've seen players who could simply sweep the bottom half of the tournament table, winning against every single player he out-ranked... but couldn't even scrape up a draw against anyone higher-ranked.

I've also seen players who only seem to play well against strong opponents. Pair them against a 1400 player and they play like a 1401 (or 1399) player.

My favorite example: Myself.

I've got an even score against World Chess Champions (thanks, GM Mikhail Tal!) but any strong CM or weak IM could crush me like a bug.

Boy, Tal must have really been slipping in his old age.   lol   Kidding, of course.  Congratulations if you really did draw against Tal.  That's pretty awesome for a strong Expert (untitled).   Was he very upset?

anything possible

just like seeing a fat lady sing

The only chance for a 1300 to win against a 2700 is when his opponent gets a heart attack or something.

I think a lot of people don't understand the difference between possible and likely.

It is possible that all the molecules in the keyboard on which I am typing will all move in the same direction and it will fly out of the room.  But it is not at all probable.  It is not something I expect to happen ... ever.

It is also possible that I will beat the 2300+ player that I will be playing later today as sacrificial lamb on board one in an OTB inter-club match.  That is a lot more ikely than a 1300 player beating a 2700 player but it is  still not very likely.  Far more likely is that I will come second.

I wonder how often strong players default games? There are a wide range of scenarios which could cause this.

Yes, there is a chance that a 1300 rated palyer can beat a 2700 player, during power outage in the strong player neighborhood.

grizzy bear vs a field mouse in a fight. who wins? 

a) I am not going to spoon-feed intelligent people that are capable of finding the details and filling in gaps for themselves.

b) Colour was not the only analogy I offered, and I agree that it is not a very good one. I also mentioned ring species, and that is a better analogy.

c) There is no c.

#5323 Reading in isolation sounds like

a) I am too lazy/unable to back up my position

b) my analogy is poor (but I did mention a better one!!!!)

c) I have no c

Pretty weak

Well then there is no point of you posting here, since we can all look up the answers to this question ourselves. Yeah of course it's possible for me to figure out what you're trying to say, I'm sure you meant something, but I'm not going to spend a half hour trying to do that when other people actually are presenting more substantive arguments.

Such a great question!

I once had a lucky win against Taimanov in a simul, when I was rated about 1600 and he was about 2500. He outmanoeuvred me completely in an English opening, putting me in zugzwang in the early middle game.

By the time I became aware I was in trouble, I was about to lose a piece. I searched for a way out, thought I had found it, and played the move very confidently. He didn't bother to calculate it, played what seemed the obvious reply, and then he was losing a piece!

All I had to do then was exchange down to the ending, when he resigned by just shoving all the pieces into the centre of the board. If he had bothered to check it, he would have seen the two-move deep flaw in my 'escape'.

Ah! The cunning plan of lulling the master into a false sense of security.

Cunning plan? By me? I was just out of my depth.

He outplayed me all the way until he made the mistake of taking my 'escape' move at face value.

the answer is yes.

Sometimes you only want to "like" a comment, not reply to it.

Is there any chance that pigs can fly?

In theory, someone could play some obsolete line and even an elite player could fall into an old known trap. I didn't beat a 2700 player, but I did beat a Senior Master with a trick that would have made a C-player blush. We were both nervous and I played an old inferior line that he hadn't seen before because it was so bad, and i only played it because I forgot the book continuation. I sac'd a bishop and got it right back but I was a pawn up, eventually winning.