I've never beaten anyone from the North Pole.
strongest opponents
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Nov 12, 2011
0
#3
I have. I played a player in North Pole, Alaska, near Fairbanks, a few years ago when I was up there and won. It was a cool game.
When I am playing OTB, and my opponent is a child, it is almost a garunteed loss for me, rating is almost irrelevant. Well, except on one occasion, my child opponent was up a piece, did not realize it, and offered a draw, which I accepted although I felt a little bad about doing so.
Why? No idea. Maybe I spend so much time thinking "I cant allow myself to get beaten by a 9 year old" that I get beaten by a 9 year old. But its weird, because I can just feel myself making positionally bad moves, like almost realizing it and being helpless to stop my downhill slide.
Oh nationality doesnt matter. Just, please, dont pair me up against a little kid.
for me, its people who stare me down OTB.
If you beat an eskimo do you get to sleep with his wife, assuming he's married 
It has struck me that some nationalities are better than others given the same rating. I can't figure out how this can be since all the players are in the same chess.com rating pool.
jetfighter13 wrote:
Invisible Duck, how do you do against teens? :P
So far It is only the sub-teen set I have problems with. But dont get any ideas, because it only seems to apply OTB!
Also, I am currently coaching at a K-5 school, and have improved a lot (haven't lost to any of my proteges yet!) so I may be fixing the problem. Its all psychological. Even so, I do seem to run into problems early on, and often look at my positions against them and think "well, if I was sitting in their spot right now, I could crush me!". So I still wind up with bad positions out of the opening.
evertheoptimist wrote:
I've noticed that i nearly always lose when I play against people from india regardless whether they are higher or lower rated than I . Do others have players from different nationalities that they seem to do badly against ???
dunno
Re OP: India has the oldest continuous culture in the world (sorry, it's not China) & is also the birthplace of chess. They continue to have a great emphasis on education & scientific/logical analysis (ex: yoga).
Small wonder players from there are good ....but the best players come from the other side of the looking glass.
those players with GM in front of their names tend to play tough
lol
Nov 17, 2011
0
#16
We have a hard time beating wenches. It's just not a very chivalrous thing for a dragon to do.
I've noticed that i nearly always lose when I play against people from india regardless whether they are higher or lower rated than I . Do others have players from different nationalities that they seem to do badly against ???