messing with your opponent's mind

I was just wondering what some people do to psychout the competition. I usually stare at them. It gotten me a draw twice when i was losing and a win once.

Eat nachos during gameplay without a napkin. I suppose you could watch Baseketball for ideas. Are you freakin' serious?

Don't stare straight into your opponent's eyes. If you did that to me, I'd say something.

I stare at my opponent's avatar in a menacing way. Sometimes it works.

I once had my 18 month old son on my lap and my opponent was so distracted he lost every game ( friendly skittles). Now I have a two year old granddaughter who'd distract everyone, lol.

I have a friend that used to turn the radio up loud when we were playing to distract me, sometimes it worked.  Another guy i played would act like he blundered to get me to take the bait, never worked.

The topic of this thread is one reason I love inter-net chess. I loath moronic opponents who do all sorts of weird stuff to distract opponents.

the person i stared down in order to win was a younger, smaller guy than myself so maybe that was kinda mean.

Disable chat and everything is wonderful

An unanticipated move.

A large hanky, one corner soaked in pepper, repeatedly wipe your nose and sneeze all over board and opponent..

Seriously, I couldn't bring myself to do anything deliberatly to put my opp off, just not built that way. But if someone tried it on with me I wouldn't suffer in silence, I am built that way.

On online chess, having a name like ^ would certainly do it!!

lol, nice.

Every time you make a move, silently mouth a perfectly random number like 437.

I don't see how that would help, even OTB.

A less random number like 420 could concievably distract an opponent, getting them thinking about smoking, rather than their move ;)

It would be better to laugh every time your opponent moves or is about to or something to make him doubt what he is doing and confused about what you are doing.

Or wear a funny hat.  Or a funny shirt like Aronian.

        Eat a viciously hot curry shortly before the game and wait for the after effects.