Are higher rated players having more luck?

I think yes, because you expect less blunders of higher rated players and therefore you will miss them - of course not always but more often. There were some games, where I blundered a full piece against strong players, who spent 10 seconds or more on their next move missing it. In the next game I was the lower rated player myself and completely missed the hanging piece.



My move 14.Bg2?? was with hindsight a "lucky counter-blunder". but even after 14...Qd7?? I needed over 15 seconds to finally "see" the hanging piece on h3.

I think this happens on all levels no matter if it is 2300 against 2500 or 1700 against 1900.

Maybe I should use Zen mode more often :o/

@oberschlumpf Yes ofcourse. It happens to me as well. We tend to have fast stimuli at instance. But not they have more luck but we tend to do mistakes.

I have noticed that too. However, I wouldn't use zen mode as it can sometimes be useful to know the rating of your opponent especially in fast time formats.

#1
Not actually 'luck', but when someone gets paired with higher rated players, a psychological impact takes place in their mind which causes them to blunder more than usual against higher rated players and hence miss out on opponent's mistakes.

@oberschlumpf , can't firmly tell that they have more luck, but definitely, some luck, also it depends on everyone's play in a particular game.

yeah

I dont know about titled players, but non titled players like me often panic when we get paired with a titled player, no matter whether his/her rating is 2900 or 1900

Seems that from this forum, higher rated players are more concerned about their rating.

I actually sat there just now for several seconds, going, "What's he talking about? Where's the hang?" :D