What do you do when your opponant is wild?

I have been trying to learn to play intelligently and with a respect for the books on an orderly opening. And here on Chess.com all my opponants have played orderly and with a plan. I respect them and the way they play. (They usually beat me...)

BUT, yesterday I received in the mail Chessmaster Grandmaster Edition, and plunged right in after I installed it. As you know, they have all sorts of characters you can play against. I chose some nice looking woman with a rating around 800 and began to plod gently along with Ruy Lopez.

But before I realized it, she was playing in a bizarre manner, sending pawns down the side files, and before I knew it she had her queen out and was slaughtering me. Her queen was vicious.  I timidly got my bishop out and ZAP! her bishop got mine.

It all happened so fast. I did not know how to defend or attack such an opponant. So I quit the game as it made no sense to me. She was playing in a manner I have read not to and was BEATING me.

I've never played against anyone like that.

Have you? If so, how did you play?

stwils

you should post the game and put it up for analysis

I tend to play with a little more of a plan than what you've described, but I usually get my queen out early and slaughter. There's a fairly high ratio to the times that my queen's been trapped, but I wouldn't say it more than 35% tops. Of course, it does help to have other stratigy mixed in with the slaughtering... but it does work... even on higher players!

Your problem is that you had a set of moves that (I would think) you were playing pretty automatically, because of the orderly manner of higher-rated players. What you have to do is look at the reasons behind the move- you appear to have been moving regardless of what your opponent does. In short, it would appear (I do not know that this is the case) that you have memorised openings at a level when they make no difference- it is the Opening PRINCIPLES, and tactics, that should concern you right now.

The characters in Chessmaster XI are atleast more realistic than in the previous version of the software. I like them myself.

Playing against this "wild" lady was a great learning experience for you! You were supposed to learn one very basic idea in openings: your opponent can get confused when you leave the book i.e. move something that you are not supposed to move i.e. something that is out of the book.

I have played many times against players with average rating (1400-1600) here in chess.com and they play solid openings, which is offcourse unevitable when you are allowed to use books etc when planning a move. But when you leave the book openings and move something "confusing" as you said, your opponent must actually think him/her self and then some of my opponents have done serious errors. So whatever your opponent moves, you should stick to the plan to get a control of the center in one way or the other. Dont get confused if your opponents move is not a book move, that only means its propably a bad move! But not necesseraly. Look at the board!

And ... you cant move a book move if your opponent is not playing along! Playing book moves means that both players are playing according to the same allready commonly studied plan. Once your opponent leaves the book, you propably have to leave it too, but this depends on the situation offcourse. It takes two to tango, they say! :)

I suggest you play against the "lady" again!

There are some CM personalities at low-average levels who simulate a human player at that level relatively decently (Lacey being one of them, with the exception of her lighting-like speed), but 85% of them play by the "10 Grandmaster-strength moves and then give away a Knight" technique.

it's good to play against such opponents. It makes you remember the solid and correct games(openings) have a meaning to them. Such kamikaze opponents are easily parried by playing your own way, but thinking each move through again, even logical moves.

sometimes instead of looking at books, you should look at the board. analyse what you have there and take it for what it is, not what they hould have done to make yours work

stwils,

antra & Nytik gave you the best advice.  Don't pay attention to any of the pitiful folks who need to puff up their chests and are really blowing smoke to soothe their own egos.  Double click the name and look at rating when they say it's so easy to be at such and such a rank anywhere and they're not!

Even against computers playing a "wild" opening [unorthodox is probably a better word], stick with the general principles --- grab as much of the center as you can; protect those center pawns by developing [generally Knights before Bishops because Knights control more specific squares and finding the "right" square for a bishop usually comes after]; 95 to 99% of the time castling should be next; look to create open or half open files or squares you can control heading toward the direction of the enemy king; get your rooks and queen cooperating with each other and with the other pieces and pawns --- and go for it.   Don't worry about memorizing every opening!  That's because white has the first move but black, generally, decides what opening we're going to play.

Try to act rather than react.  If something looks crazy, it probably has a big flaw that becomes obvious if you think about it. When a computer, or a real person, tries to drag you out of "the book" your first question probably should be "Can I ignore that move without harm?"  Follow that with "Can I stick with my general plan?"  THINK!  And, if you don't find anything wrong with your thinking then follow it until the opponent shows you you're wrong.  Sometimes, when you do that, you lose; but, most of the time you score the point.  It's like life.  It's a journey to get better.  A ranking is not a destination.  Also, ain't nobody undefeated out there unless they won their first game ever and quit.

Best Regards & have fun.

When someone brings out their queen to early find ways to develop your pieces and attack it at the sametime! Also make sure none of your pieces are being threatened.

If a player leaves book and violates general principles he can also be totally thrashed and lose very quickly:

I'm playing a match now that is going like that.  I'm not a very good player (1300s) and I thought I was playing down a bit (900s).  Before I knew it I had lost two major pieces and had half of my pawn rank destroyed.  The end is inevitable right now unless they make a mistake.  I am very interested to get the analysis when it is completed.  At first I thought they were crazy.  They moved many pawns and then brought out the queen.  I set up in the middle and lost everything.

If you play someone who plays 'wild' and doesn't use a plan and you are using a plan ..... then, assuming the two players are roughly equal in playing strength, doesn't it suggest that the plan is not very good?

I would love my opponents to make uncoordinated moves, to move their a and h pawns needlessly, to play with out coordinated aim ... I think it would only improve my chances of beating them. Sadly, few of them play that way :(

For what it's worth, I might to treat the board as a tactics problem. Look for a piece that is unguarded or underguarded, then look for a way to target it. It may not be a "mate in three" scenario, but it may help you regain the initiative.

When I was reading about chess a few years ago, one bit of advice I came acroos was to "try not to move the same piece twice in the opening" (so you develop more pieces). If you can bring out a new piece in three consecutive moves that forces your opponent to move his/her queen after each one, you've built a big development advantage.

I believe in discipline on the battlefield if my opponent refuses to see reason if he is irrational or if he is a wild man or a barbarian I settle back and play my game try my best to impose law and order on the board on my opponent peace and calm. 

"she was 800 rating? That´s not even a chess player. That is a piece pusher."

It was a Chessmaster personality. They are, for the most part, bizzare.

Thank you guys so much for your thoughts, encouragement, and suggestions.

It was, to say the least, quite a new experience for me to play an erratic character like that.

I'm trying now to see what I can learn from that experience. I think perhaps the best things is for me to keep my eye on the ball (chessboard) and not in my head. Hang on to what I know about chess and going for control of the center, but at the same time keeping a wary eye on what my opponant may be doing to disrupt a sane approach.

I have only been playing chess seriously since I came here on Chess.com in Sept. I know it is a long road to really learning and you just can't "cram" chess.

It's like taking piano lessons for 4 months and expecting to play the Beethoven Opus 111 sonata. It can't be done. Chess is the same, I think. Steady practice and patience and time. And not getting discouraged by unreasonable expectations of myself.

stwils

This is true. Lacey is a good personality she is full strength GM except for the one move search depth! She can't see any combinations at all, but she plays super strong one move deep. Until you develop the trick of beating her with combinations over her horizon she actually kicks ass! And the next level up -- the pure two moves deep personality Max (1588...) and the three move deep Vlad (1848) are all very very good practice for club-level players IMO. They NEVER outright blunder. They NEVER miss basic two-move tactical opportunities. They make tons of positional mistakes that lead to tactical opportunities though. It's funny -- they are absolutely and completely inhuman in their approach, they are the opposite of people (who are good at thinking about deep implications but screw up the short term details very easily) -- but somehow this makes for a much more challenging satisfying opponent than the supposedly "human" like opponents, who just play like freaks.

Many of the personalities between 1000 and 1800 can be really wacky and very frustrating... they beat you until they decide to beat themselves... you rarely get the sense that you beat them. Imagine a program that plays super GM strong except that randomly every 30 or so moves (if you last that long) it just knocks the board over screaming, "I resign..." no matter what the position... it'd be rated -- I dunno 1600? but it wouldn't feel like a 1600 player... it'd feel like an insane frustrating GM.  Many of the  Chessmaster personalities are these insane GMs.

Stwils... Don't play Lacey, Max or Vlad yet.  You can beat the 'wild' 800 lady... just by taking advantage of her mistakes. The CM personalities below 1000 make plenty of one move mistakes... they hang pieces pretty often. If you're losing to a personality below 1000 it's for one reason: You're hanging pieces faster than She is! You just need to settle down and look at the board and all moves carefully. Don't worry about trying to  find the computer's 'wild' plan... just take each move, one at a time, and say, now what is attacked? What can I attack or capture?  Play slowly (don't try to play at the computer's speed) and really look at all your opportunities. When in doubt play solid chess -- taking control of the center, attacking weak points. And don't leave pieces where they can be taken for free. You'll beat the 'wild' opponent. Once you can beat any personality below 1000 regularly, taking advantage of their mistakes, hop up to Lacey and do your best.

stwils> with a respect for the books on an orderly opening.

At your level, it doesn't matter if one plays by the book, since games are ultimately decided by who hangs the most pieces or pawns.

stwils> I did not know how to defend or attack such an opponant.

The same way you crush 1100 players on chess.com. You examine every CHECK and CAPTURE. You pick up the material they blunder and win.

LoneWolfEburg> 85% of them play by the "10 Grandmaster-strength moves and then give away a Knight" technique.

This is true at higher levels, but at the 800-level Chessmaster's max search-depth is limited to 3-ply, so it never plays Grandmaster-strength moves.

stwils> I chose some nice looking woman with a rating around 800

The only women ~800 are Mona (806) and Sonja (824). Sonja is higher-rated and likes her queen so let's examine her play a bit:

Likesforests, that game reminds me of some of the players at my school who (meaning no respect) I usually play for a bit of comedy and unexpectedness. I love when they make moves like the 11... Bxd2+ with a triumphant smile on their face and then I point out that I have no less than two pieces which can recapture.

Man I'm heartless.