Confidence is Key

If you think your opponent is better than you, she probably is. But so what? The beauty of chess is that ANYONE can win against ANYONE else...it's possible. What else can you hope for?

Do you think you could win a race against Usain Bolt? Sure you can! He could pull a hamstring (like he did in August of 2017. Can you beat Magnus Carlsen? YES, of course. Even the world champion can blunder!

And really, we're not even talking about playing a Super Grand Master! We're talking about playing you nemesis, the guy you always lose to. The one who is maybe 100 ELO higher than you.

If you go into the game thinking you're going to lose...chances are really good that you will. Instead you need to believe that you will win. Each time you sit down. Not "want" to win, but believe you "will" win.

Confidence is critical in all sports, Chess included.

I plan on doing an experiment to prove this point. The plan is to have a student play 3 opponents. One 200 rating points lower, 1 about the same, and one 200 points higher. The key is to have the student play the SAME person in all three cases, but to tell the student that his opponents are different people of the different rankings. It doesn't matter if the student wins or loses...it only matters how they play.

I will use three factors to see if the student plays differently against each opponent. Computer analysis, my own analysis, and my students self-assessment. The hypothesis is that the student will play very well when he thinks he's 200 points better, will play fine when he believes he's equal and play the worst when he is playing someone he believes is appreciably better. Why? All due to confidence born of the rating differences.

I'll let you know how the experiment goes...

Check me out on twitch twitch.tv/Tiberian64 or
my YouTube channel - especially Chess 100 series for beginners (20 lessons): https://tinyurl.com/yjsjcqel