Same here.

If I am not forgetting any games, I have a -1 score in some 25 classical games versus grandmasters (thin brag). In a vast majority of those games I was playing my A or even A+ game.

My score in classical games against IM's is probably worse (some -5/-10 range over a way larger sample size), but again, in most of those games I was playing pretty well, yet on average definitely worse than against grandmasters.

Now, my score against weaker players is obviously a + score, but I think it should be an even bigger +. My play in probably more than 50% of games against weaker opponents was just plain BAD. I just get away very often cause they play even worse.. I find it amazingly hard to concentrate while playing against lower rated opponents. The danger zone for me is 2000-2200 opponents - I am expecting a win, I relax a bit, and they are actually good enough to use it.

+1 for the last 3 messages, I play so much better against players above and around my own rating than 2000-2200 guys it's frustrating. Anyone with a cure?

Ha interesting. I wonder if when higher rated people lose to you guys, it's for the same reason (eg- they expect to win and get careless).

Against lower rated people/people within 50 points of me, I expect to win with every move...I feel like that confidence yields good results.

I'm not typical in that I have GM wins and many losses to under 1600 players. It has to do with the fact that I love to attack and sacrifice and one poor move ruins everything, but when I string together several strong moves and an unexpected sac, it feels great.

One thing I forgot to mention in something that will help you improve your rating tremendously, play blindfolded games. This should be done often throughout your chess learning. It helps you see many moves ahead. If you can't visualize the board in your head, you'll have trouble seeing far ahead at the board.

Another tougher thing to master is evaluating a position. Countless times I get to a position I thought I wanted only to realize too late that it isn't in my favor. This is very subtle, but computer use helps in this area now.

I was intrigued by this discussion, so I decided to try it out myself...and I won my last three games against people 200+ points higher rated (granted for me thats about 1500). Still felt pretty awesome. I definitely think I play better against higher rated opposition as well.

Well sometimes it can be just some simple/huge thought. Like to look at the most aggressive or the most forcing move and see if it works. And if not play something positional. And sometimes it is some small things. In this there is no real next level. Just very small improvement every day.

I recently lost all my money playing poker. So now I have lots of free time to study chess.

I think if you go broke and have nothing to do, you'll have more time to study chess. Now I play the french defense. I NEVER played the french before. Its fun. Especially when people play 7. Qg4 in the winawer line. Aw man.

Maybe not. There is this guy durjoy whose blitz rating is 2609 and 5-minute 2603!

According to his profile, he's also a grandmaster rated 2510 FIDE. Most players with a blitz rating around 2600 (though he has been close to 3000) aren't that good. It's one instance, just like YaacovN, who has no international title, but is 2450ish USCF, 3415 ICC blitz, and 2558 ICC 5-minute.

Yeah, what a scrub.

What? I definitely didn't mean that a 2510 FIDE player is weak, though looking at what I wrote I can see how you'd assume that I meant that. I meant that usually players who are around 2600 for ICC blitz aren't as strong as 2510 FIDE.

I discovered a problem that causes my rating to stagnate. Since it's so easy to get a game, I end up playing when I feel tired/burned out; but the consequences of losing don't bother me enough to not play because it's fun to play. So I end up playing the first five games well and win 3 or 4 of those, but then end up playing the next five games poorly and win 2 of those. This is a problem because I really enjoy playing and don't want to only play a few games/day just to increase my rating.

So hopefully I'll build up my mental endurance so that I can play a bunch of games in a day and win most of them.

The thing that just took my game to the next level is weakness fixing - things like backwards pawns and such like that, finding a weakness and building a plan around it. I watched an instructional video from seirawan that really oened my eyes and showed me how a GM exploited, for instance, the backwards pawn on d6 in some sicilian lines.

Here's a game I just played against someone rated much higher than me...one of my best wins (he ended up making a bad mistake at the end to blow it). If anyone gets a chance to offer any feedback on general mistakes I might be making in my overall game plan that would be awesome. I am white. Ugggg unfortunately Yahoo's abbreviations seem to suck...but just in case people can follow along I'll paste this anyway.

1. d2-d4 d7-d5
2. c2-c4 d5xc4
3. e2-e4 h7-h6
4. f1xc4 e7-e6
5. g1-e2 f8-e7
6. o-o g8-f6
7. e4-e5 f6-d5
8. b1-c3 d5xc3
9. b2xc3 o-o
10. f2-f4 f7-f5
11. e2-g3 c7-c6
12. g3-h5 b7-b5
13. c4-b3 a7-a5
14. d1-d3 d8-e8
15. d3-f3 e8-g6
16. a2-a4 b5-b4
17. c3-c4 c8-d7
18. d4-d5 e7-c5+
19. g1-h1 d7-e8
20. b3-d1 g6-f7
21. h2-h3 f7-d7
22. d5-d6 b8-a6
23. g2-g4 f5xg4
24. f3xg4 e8xh5
25. g4xh5 f8-f5
26. h5-g6 d7-f7
27. g6xf7+ g8xf7
28. d1-c2 f5-h5
29. h1-g2 a8-b8
30. f1-d1 b4-b3
31. d6-d7 c5-e7
32. c2xb3 a6-c5
33. b3-c2 b8-d8
34. c1-d2 d8xd7
35. d2xa5 d7xd1
36. c2xd1 h5-f5
37. a5-d2 f7-e8
38. a4-a5 f5-f7
39. a5-a6 c5-e4
40. a6-a7 e4xd2
41. a7-a8+ e8-d7
42. a1-a7++

Here ya go, GoBlue. Now it's possible for others to read. 28. Bg4 wins the exchange, although black does still have some play with his passed pawn. 32...Rxb3 instead of Nc5 looks good for black. Once you've opened up the g-file (around move 25) don't then trade queens. That open g-file is an important path for your pieces to get at the black king. The queen is normally going to be an important part of that attack. Once you got toward the endgame, you did a very nice job of pushing your passed pawns. Oh, also why did your knight go to h5 and why did you insist on keeping it there?

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "?"]
[Black "?"]
[Result "*"]
[PlyCount "83"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. e4 h6 4. Bxc4 e6 5. Ne2 Be7 6. O-O Nf6 7. e5 Nd5 8. Nbc3
Nxc3 9. bxc3 O-O 10. f4 f5 11. Ng3 c6 12. Nh5 b5 13. Bb3 a5 14. Qd3 Qe8 15. Qf3
Qg6 16. a4 b4 17. c4 Bd7 18. d5 Bc5+ 19. Kh1 Be8 20. Bd1 Qf7 21. h3 Qd7 22. d6
Na6 23. g4 fxg4 24. Qxg4 Bxh5 25. Qxh5 Rf5 26. Qg6 Qf7 27. Qxf7+ Kxf7 28. Bc2
Rh5 29. Kg2 Rb8 30. Rd1 b3 31. d7 Be7 32. Bxb3 Nc5 33. Bc2 Rd8 34. Bd2 Rxd7 35.
Bxa5 Rxd1 36. Bxd1 Rf5 37. Bd2 Ke8 38. a5 Rf7 39. a6 Ne4 40. a7 Nxd2 41. a8=Q+
Kd7 42. Ra7# *

Thanks swingdoc. I put my knight there originally with the idea of eventually threatening mate if I ever got my queen over to that side of the board. I kept it there because I remember in Bobby Fischer's annotation of a game he said "White has a won endgame," when he moved his knight onto a square that could not be attacked. So since my knight seemed safe there, while also potentially contributing to a future attack, I figured I shouldn't move it.

I think I exchanged queens because at the time I may have been up a pawn and figured exchanging pieces benefits me. However, I'll need to go back and look at the game when I get home. Anyway, thanks for your thoughts.

What about me then? My blitz rating is now 2506 and my 5-minute a minute ago was 2483. New record btw little´brag baby. I am like a patzerking in 5-minute and kinda suck at all the other timecontrols.

I know that I will get heat for this, but my suggestion would be to learn some openings. If you start with a lost position like that you won't be able to show anything, so all the effort you put into the rest of your game goes down the drain. You need an opening scheme that allows you stay in the game at least. Just a quick hint: Don't grab pawns in the opening and don't waste a move with h6 unless there is bishop at g5!

Get this book: http://www.amazon.com/Simple-Chess-A...0396431&sr=8-1

For tactics anything will do. I think this one could be helpful: http://www.amazon.com/Chess-Tactics-...0396781&sr=8-2

Unfortunately there is no good book on basic openings that I can recommend. This is a classic and it explains the concepts rather well (the analysis is outdated, but nobody will notice at your level): http://www.amazon.com/Ideas-Behind-C...0397441&sr=1-1

A more modern version would be this: http://www.amazon.com/FCO-Fundamenta...0396960&sr=8-3

All true...except that he had the White pieces!

awesome

The strange part for me is ive never hit a brick wall in chess in terms of getting better - unlike poker where I certainly did (and needed coaching). It always felt after every 100 games or so online I would be a noticably better player than I was before. I would say that somewhere in the last year or two my tactical ability became a lot sharper and I just never made blunders anymore (even in 5/0 games it is rare now).

It was kind of gradual. I will say that there came a point when I could think of some chess position that I had recently played in my head and play out all the moves I was thinking about without setting it up on a chess board. This mind's eye visualation has grown stronger and stronger since. Now it seems like when Im playing I can visualize out 5 moves in advance with little difficulty, years ago when i was a teenager and playing scholastic tourneys I could never do this. But I still have a long ways to improve im sure.

Lol, nice!

I only looked at the quote where "?" plays against "?" and simply assumed that nobody would post such a game unless he lost and is asking for help.

ha well i figured it would be a good idea to see if i make fundamental mistakes even in one of my best games.

you're like an Aussie_Poker who speaks English.

i believe you guys are wrong to suggest to players to learn endgames and openings in order to succeed. the middle game is by far the most complicated and difficult part. in any matchup where my opponent plays conservatively i am in big trouble. often i will reach a position where i don't know what to do. i will sit there while my timer runs down and make a "harmless" move hoping my opponent will make a mistake. OR i will make an overly-aggressive move to try to make something happen.

the opening is the easy part. the endgame at least gives you a clear idea of what you are trying to accomplish. the middle game is a total limbo period. in theory you're supposed to use it to get to some form of endgame; but that is soooo difficult to picture in your mind. how do you know what endgame to picture when you're not even close to there yet? once you get to the endgame phase, often you can figure things out pretty easily. it's getting to the endgame phase without making a major mistake that is so difficult.

i was going to make this a separate post, but i figured there's not a lot people could say to make it thread-worthy on its own.