Little Flaws I Need...
Submitted by
on Thu, 10/16/2008 at 3:06am.
In thirty years of playing chess I learned one thing: I cannot win, if my opponent does not make a strategical or tactical error. It does not have to be a huge blunder (like loosing a piece for nothing), but I need to get a "grip" on the game either with a tactical combination or a sure positional plan.
Since I am in chess com I played some games with players above the level of 2000 up to 2300. The result is almost always the same: I can't get a "grip" on the game, because I cannot find an error within their fabric of moves. They simply don't give me any opportunity, neither for tactical, nor for strategical plans. To my personal search-engine (created in thirty years of chess) their game seems utterly flawless. They seem to know all openings for the first twenty moves, they never make tactical errors (at least I don't perceive them and I am able to calculate ten moves ahead, at least in some situations), they always find the right strategical plan in a given situation and their mastery of the endgame is equally brilliant. In most games I drag on and hold for a while, yet then I commit a tactical or strategical error, which will be immediately punished...
After a while the experience gets a little frustrating. I could console myself with the philosophy, that I will learn something by loosing a game. Yet even this is not really possible: to copycat their flawless style, I would need to have the same mastery of openings, meaning to know them ALL up to twenty moves into the future. This would mean months or even years of dedicated study, as they have accomplished for sure, and with my aging brain the result would be still doubtful...
This is the reason, why I decided not to accept challenges anymore from players above 1850!
Yes: to win against YOU, I need you slightly weaker (not too weak, because against a beginner I learn as little as against a master)...
...and winning more, than I loose...
...that's why I am here! 
How about you ?