I hit 1000 rating recently and made this post asking to face higher rated players to test my skills and just expand my understanding of the game.

I learned a lot more than I expected, and my chess game levelled up a massive amount, so I wanted to share some things I noticed:

  1. Good players know openings very deeply: I play the evan's gambit as white as my MAIN opening and every opponent I face accepts it unthinkingly and I cheese out wins with it every time. The 2000 player I faced declined it, and knew the mainline 10 moves deep and said "I'm sure you know that you're supposed to protect the light square bishop" (I did not) And that was the opening I felt I knew the most about. I realized that I'll eventually face players who know what they're doing, and at that point knowing my openings inside out will be valuable.

  2. Good players have wider repertoires: This should be obvious but I play the accelerated dragon sicilian as black, my opponent played the Alappin and I just had no clue how to play against it. The player was 2000 and recommended me Naroditsky's speedrun and that helped me IMMENSELY with my understanding of my openings and ideas. I played my offbeat alien gambit against him and while he was less prepared, he had some general plan against it and was able to avoid it. This taught me that there are a ton of common variations I'm generally unprepared for and would benefit from a basic plan against.

  3. The most important one, there's more to the game than material: The 2000 rated player was fine losing pieces against me for initiative. He remarked that lower rated players chase material because its permanent, whereas initiative and positional advantage is temporary and requires capitalizing. This completely reshaped my understanding of chess, and was the original goal of this exercise, because I saw high level players down a rook but they were better somehow, and I sought to understand this. Before, I thought being down a bishop or a knight meant the game was over, since the opponent can trade everything and win an endgame, but now I don't give up and can evaluate how "good" a position is like higher level players do. (Also if I blunder a bishop/knight I just say "initiative" to myself and keep playing, that confidence is helpful for some reason)

  4. Everyone loses pieces: In the 7 games I played against 2000 rated players, 1 of them I straight up hung my queen, another I miscalculated and lost a minor piece. 2 of them they blundered a fork. The lesson here is that everyone is vulnerable to blundering. I learned to think a bit more before I play my moves to avoid blundering, and be ready to capitalize on opponents' mistakes.

With this knowledge I beat my friend who is 1300 and taught me chess at the start of last year 3-2, as well as another 1400 level player I played against in correspondence. I still play correspondence with a 2000 player who kicks my butt.

I strongly recommend seeking out high level players on Discord or asking strong friends you know to play and analyze your games together. Maybe even hiring a coach for a couple of games, or making a post like I did. Ended up being a great decision on my part!

submitted by /u/Destinyend
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