Playing / Slaying Giants

Say you're playing someone related 500 or more points higher than you. 

What are your goals? How do you feel after/during the game? 

Do you go in expecting to lose and possibly learn something? 

Do you hope to prolong the game as long as possible as opposed to being checkmated in the first 15 moves? 

Do you do anything differently when playing a much higher rated player than you would if you were playing someone rated at your level or much lower? 

Funny you should post this!

I just this minute lost a game against a guy rated 500 points higher than me.

I used it as a chance to try out a new opening(Slav/Semi-Slav)

I think I played pretty well up until about move twenty, then I gave up defending to snatch a pawn because I'd underestimated his counterattack and I was beaten fairly quickly after that.

I didn't really consider the rating difference other than to use the analysis board a LOT more than I would normally!

After the game I felt like I'd probably missed some defenses and was quickly onto computer analysis.

I'll try to post the game if you want.

Well it's a no pressure situation -- much harder psychologically for the guy rated +500.  The trick is to just play how you normally would play (meaning not scared or timid for sure), play what the position calls for and don't be afraid to go for the throat.  That's probably the only difference in how I play vs a lower rated player.  A lower rated player I wouldn't go in for a complicated attack/sacrifice/etc. and just play prosaic moves... if they manage not to drop a piece through tactics and even more amazingly not destroy themselves strategically, I'll just carry my small advantage over to win in the endgame.

Vs someone higher though go ahead and go in for the unclear complicated evaluations, they're human too and can make mistakes (don't sac to sac, but make a mess, create complications).  If it's not as unclear for them you might lose, but you'll learn a lot by going into it and burning your brain working through it OTB and then though analysis.  So while this is definitely a risk vs someone you "should" beat, vs a +500 player it's a win/win (also gives you best chances to "slay the giant").

In real life, I was in a tournament where, I, as the 39th seed with 1572 ELO, had to play against the 2nd seed, 5th seed, 8th seed, and 13th seed in a 9-round swiss tournament. I was badly pwned but I saved my games I recorded and I learned a lot. The 2nd seed was 2142, 5th seed 2048, and 8th seed 1987. I might find the games sometime and post them.