Diamond levelSound familiar?
That child who believes in a recipe. Learn the right moves in the right order, play them fast, and the win is supposed to follow. They watch opening videos at breakfast and blitz out long opening lines almost without looking at the board. Endgames? "You have to get there first," they say, and never study them.
Johannes spends a whole month on one opening, because to him the opening is the game. The trouble starts where the book ends, and nobody wrote down the next move. Beating him shows your child what the book is for: it gets you to a good position, and from there the game still has to be played.
Johannes's signature moves
Johannes comes at the full moon, with one opening learned by heart.
In every example, Johannes plays the black pieces.
The book, move for move
He knows every move of his opening by heart, even where one slip would cost him.
Where the book ends
Play any move his book does not know, and he must think for himself. He is still strong, but from here on he can make mistakes.
The endgame he never studied
With only a few pieces left, he plays weaker for the rest of the game.