The Bogeyman Factor
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on Sat, 03/14/2009 at 12:50am.
Two years ago I won the first three games of a Swiss tournament and found myself on Board 1 playing against GM Dejan Antic. I was determined not to wimp out and answered his 1.d4 with a King's Indian Defence—and that is the sort of opening that Sir Humphrey Appleby (of Yes Prime Minister fame) would have described as “courageous”.
It wouldn't have made much difference what I played but at least this was a fighting defence. In the KID White usually attacks down the queen side while Black lets loose his king side pawns. Antic found no problems with my attack but I was completely bamboozled by his.
I had gone into the game trying to look confident but was already mentally defeated. It's what Modesty Blaise called PD—psychological domination.
On a web site like chess.com we often find ourselves paired with opponents who are rated far above us and at those times the bogeyman factor comes into play. Sometimes the rating gap is less, perhaps insignificant, but if we have a consistently losing record against a particular player, the effect can be similar.
One of my bogeymen was Pistoleer who found me such an easy-beat that he sacrificed pieces just to see what I would do. The only two wins I had against him were from such sacrifices. I won't show any of his games here as I already wrote about him in The Leprechaun Gambit. It's probably worth a visit because Tuesday will be St. Patrick's Day.
If you feel outclassed in some of your games, remember that even a strong opponent can make a mistake. The higher their rating, the less likely they are to blunder—but everybody does it once in a while so plug on and keep your eyes open. And remember, when you do catch a lucky break, you must never relax. Being in front is your wake-up call to tell you that if you play well for the rest of the game you will win. (If you don't believe that check the two examples in my last post, Winning a Lost Game which could equally have been titled, “Losing a Won Game”.)
At my skill level blunders come easily. Check out this game I played against my good friend Vertmouron last month. How could I have done such a thing? Neuronepaenia! If your opponent is inflicted by this insidious and debilitating disease you have no need to fear him.
But blunders aren't confined to the patzersphere. They can happen at the highest level. Among the most famous was Kramnik's defeat at the hands of Deep Fritz in 2006. If such a man can overlook mate-on-the-move so can that guy sitting across the board from you.
Of course you won't win many games if you depend on your opponents' mistakes. The things that will make you a force to be reckoned with are experience and study. Even so, while you're accumulating those, remember not to be intimidated by the “bogeyman factor”.
GM Yasser Seirawan wrote somewhere that most chess players commence a game with either too much confidence or too little. Of those two, he said, too little confidence is the greater mistake.
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