me v russian for 50 bucks, he starts with no bishops.

like the subject says im playing somebody who is better and i got him to agree to him starting with no bishops for 50 bucks, he is white. any ideas on how i should play. im thinking he is starting with the kings pawn. should i get on the attack since im up 6 points from the start, should i try to trade peices, just put up a good defense. any suggestions would be loved.

The only way he can win is if things get complicated like mutual attacks on the castled position or an otherwise wild position.  He will try hard to unbalance the position and avoid trades giving you maximum chance to make an error.  That and/or he'll go for an all out attack on your king.  These are the ways for him to win.

The strategy for you is opposite.  Keep the position as calm and solid as possible (passive is never good, in any type of game, you aim for active but solid) you will seek to exchange pieces whenever possible (so if you can pin his knights with your bishops and exchange them early then great). 

Try to keep the lines around your king closed and watch for sacrifices.  If he attacks your king sacrificing to displace a few pawns (open lines) is almost forced for him, so just be aware of that possibility so it doesn't catch you off guard.

Your advantage lies in the fact that you have more pieces than your opponent. If you go about using 1 or 2 pieces way more than the others, you have taken away your own advantage.

However you decide to play, aggressive, solid, etc., you must use all your pieces. If you have a piece that you have not moved, think about how to get it involved in the game. Give all your pieces a job.

If you're a beginner and often find yourself overlooking an attacked piece and losing pieces this way, he will play solid, avoid exchanges, and wait for you to give the material back.  The strategy for you in any case is the same, play solidly and seek exchanges.

Make sure he doesn't fianchetto his knights !

I think I would win against anybody if they gave me 2 bishop odds.

Simplify through even exchanges at every opportunity (Bb4, Bg4 etc), reduce the game to a trivial ending.

make him lose his playing pieces

Are you white or black? In any case, I would suggest you sacrifice your bishop on f2 or f7 if given the opportunity. To do this, though, have your pieces nicely developed. It'll certainly surprise him that you are being the aggressor.

Good advice. For example

1.e4 e5 2.d4 d6 3.Nf3 Bg4 4.dxe5 Bxf3 5.Qxf3 dxe5

And now the famous Morphy game where white plays Bc4 is unfortunately not legal. On the plus side, white can castle 1 move sooner!

Even a Russian?!?

Wow, for 50 dollars, I eat for a week in my country!

Should you lose, pay him in Liberian Dollars. 1 LRD = 14 cents.

I really think this all comes down to how good the OP is.

Of course, Ozzie, you could beat anyone, probably even Carlsen if he didn't have any Bishops. I mean, just how is he supposed to generate an effective attack in the middle game?

But if the OP is a beginner, maybe the best thing would be to do something like trade both Bishops for the Russian's Knights, that way he has to rely on pawn advances and Queen only until he is able to get his Rooks into the game. And hopefully, if the OP doesn't blunder his Queen away, he should be in good shape.

1. e4

Maybe even something silly like 1. ... d6 might work

2. Nf3 Bg4!? perhaps allowing the Queen to develop with tempo, but at least you remove a Kingside attacker.

What if it's a draw?

I would open up the center and not allow him to close it up so my (extra) Bishops will be more of a factor in the game. I'll also make sure that I do not hang pieces so the can use tactics to win them. I would also look to castle as early as possible (while keeping my goal to open up the middle in mind). I think it's very difficult to say "play this move" or "play that move" as you do not know how an opponent will respond. Good luck!

Practice against a computer before the match.

am i wrong for feeling this as well? honestly, can a GM beat an average (let's say 1500 FIDE rated player) being down two bishops at the start?

it seems almost impossible to beat those odds as long as the opponent is not completely hanging pieces. maybe i'm just under-estimating GM genius.

Depends on the time control. I've seen some of my friends beat 2200+ players rook down in blitz. And I would almost sure beat a 1500 without two bishops even in a standard game.

Odds games effectively raise the rating of the player being given odds, not lower the odds giver.  How much it raises the rating depends on the skill level.  Give a 800 rated kid knight odds and you're raising his rating by 50 points... because 99/100 times  he's going to blunder it back.

Give an 1800 player knight odds and (I think it was Kaufman again) said it's worth something like 600 points.

Two bishops to a 1500 rated player would have to be something like 1000 or more rating points.

Two bishops to a beginner (1000) would be worth maybe 100-150 rating points (1150).  Meaning if your opponent is an average-ish tournament player (1500), he'll likely still beat you if you can't keep from blundering (statistically he'll score 89%)