Carlsen was once asked a similar question. Something along the lines of why he's hard to beat.
He said in general there are two strategies when you're behind. All men to the defenses (which means building a fortress) and going all out for counterplay. He said he thinks he's been good at finding the right balance, and choosing the option that gives him the best chances of avoiding a loss.
Bacon's advice about trading pawns is good, and often given. I remember one tournament game where I was 1600 vs 2000, and my much higher rated opponent played very poorly because he didn't take the game seriously. I got a winning position, but he found a way to trade off all the pawns, so it was just a draw. (For example rook + knight vs rook is a draw if there are no pawns).
Fortresses are risky because all your pieces will be passively defending. This is more likely to work in endgame situations, or very closed positions, where your opponent will be less able to shift attacks to new areas.
As for desperate counterplay, it doesn't mean recklessly attacking their king (well, it can mean that sometimes). More usually it means pushing your play as far as possible while ignoring what your opponent is doing. For example if your main mechanism of active play is pressuring their queenside, then you'd invest more moves and more pieces into pursuing that than you usually would.
hello, whether you’re rated 300 or 3000 everyone eventually ends up down in material or behind in development. Could anyone post some links, articles, videos, or just elaborate on how on should proceed playing from behind? Obviously someone will say don’t get behind but everyone does even masters, please give some info on how one should deal with this. Thank you. And “imbacon” leave me alone.