If you play on FICS any, ficsgames.com is a handy site for finding old games and spying on potential opponents.
For example, you’re probably sitting there saying to yourself “Hey, I hate that Liquid Egg Product doesn’t put chess on his blog anymore. To get revenge, I’ll challenge him to a game on FICS and beat his army up and down the board.”
What you can do is visit ficsgames.com, and check out liquideggproduct’s statistics (or whoever your hated enemy is) like below:
Front screen:
Statistics:
Clicking on the standard Charts link (as shown in the second diagram) will show you graphs of your target’s rating, favored openings with each color, and other stuff, like the one below:
And then when you looked at my openings, you’d say “LOL, he plays the Pirc/Modern; I’ll just establish a huge pawn center and use my space advantage to squeeze him to death.”
I love ficsgames! Rocky Rook (click sidebar) gets credit for pointing it out (for me, anyway) first.
I encourage everyone to look up Donnie’s games–he has a definite style, kind of like a rattlesnake that hides behind a stuffed bunny. Let down your guard at the seeming harmlessness and snap! You’re bitten. 🙂
Well, don’t look now, because I’ve lost 4 or 5 in a row, mostly in horrendous fashion.
This, of course, after I hit 1894, just one win away from the 1900 mark.