Chess Strategies of Mature Players Vs. Chess Strategy of Teen Players

This is a great article comparing how career players differ in thier chess strategies depending on their age.

Here is an excerpt:

Chess players have long careers, which means frequent encounters between rising talents and gnarled veterans. And the parameters and psychological techniques for such occasions are well known.

Oldies need a repertoire of solid openings, including some from their youth which may be so outmoded as to have real surprise value against a teenager. The senior citizen aims for rational positions with a small advantage, eschewing obscure tactics where fading calculation skills are a drawback. He keeps out of time trouble. He is not averse to queen exchanges, for endgame judgment can improve with maturity. He will halve out rather than engage in a tiring marathon. By the way, the "he" here is accurate, for there are very few active over-50 women.

The strategy is different for the ambitious teenager. He or she will choose a fashionable or complex opening, will use second-rate moves if they provoke a melee, and will pile on the pressure from the fourth hour onwards when the older rival tires. If there's a tiny advantage, sitzfleisch comes into action and the oldie may have to suffer for a hundred moves.

http://sport.guardian.co.uk/chess/story/0,15873,1561887,00.html