How to outplay a stronger opponent and be less predictable ?

Hello. Recently I've been playing some rapid chess, and I've noticed more and more that my opponents know how to deal with my weapons and just try to avoid theory. I know I seem kinda selfish, but I feel like my rivals are very smart and know my tactical threats and intentions. Seriously, I was usually thinking my opponents are dumb people I can easily defeat, to convince myself that chess is less difficult than thought, but this thinking process doesn't work if you play against stronger players who know what to do against every trick in my sleeve.

I was thinking about changing my openings, taking too much risk with a savage opening is maybe not the best option, but I don't know what to change to and how, and I don't know what else I could change to be less foreseeable. Can everyone help me?

Just play good moves and don't blunder anything.

Ignore their rating. if you only judge them by their moves then you'll worry less and focus on the game more.

وارد تیم شطرنج جام مشهد شوید

Yet ANOTHER way of asking how to improve...

@MrPushwood said in #6:
> Yet ANOTHER way of asking how to improve...
Yep, I need the secret ingredient... the DRAGON MANUSCRIPT

Few thoughts:

1] Wow! You improved a lot in the past few months! That also means that improving further will be harder and harder.

2] You are playing at 1800 Rapid level. That means that people are comfortable with their openings and they punish tactical mistakes instantly. In general, it also means that they don't understand strategy (especially when they are forced to play a position they don't know that well) and they are bad at precise calculations in complex positions.

3] Opponents trying to avoid theory is a good sign. "Theory" is "the best known moves in a given position". Therefore your opponents are playing sub-optimal moves. This is good.

4] 1800 Rapid players see most of the simple tactical threats instantly. The time of easy wins is over.

5] I would suggest AGAINST changing your openings. With one exception. I would add Budapest Gambit to your KID.
( www.chessable.com/short-sweet-budapest-gambit/course/50173/ and 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 b5!? should be enough for now.)
I would double down on your aggressiveness. In my opinion, taking the risk with a savage opening is the reason why you are 1800 Rapid and not 1600 Rapid.

6] There is no need to be "less foreseeable". Absolutely no need. What you do need though is to improve the overall strength of your moves.

7] There are two secret ingredients at your stage. I think you can guess the first one. The second one is to make _written_ analysis of all your lost games and determine why _exactly_ you lost. (This can also serve as a hint to the first secret ingredient.)

8] Any good chess strategy book can give you a totally new look at chess - it will be eye-opening. I like Smirnov's strategy courses, but any good strategy book can do the job.

* Simple Chess by Michael Stean
* Winning Chess Strategies by Yasser Seirawan
* Modern Chess Strategy by Ludek Pachman
* Secrets of Modern Chess Strategies by John Watson
* Mastering Chess Strategy by Johan Hellsten

Just one book from the above list is enough to give your chess new energy!

Best wishes!

Especially in rapid chess, you HAVE to know your opening super well, you cant play weird moves as it may give the opponent the advantage, although u can try a sneaky move to confuse the opponent but not give him the advantage :)