Opportunity vs. Chance

Opportunity vs. Chance

When someone gets a chance or an opportunity, as in

He got a chance to demonstrate his skills to the boss.
He got an opportunity to demonstrate his skills to the boss.

the words are essentially identical.
However, when someone takes a chance, that is very different from taking an opportunity. "Taking a chance" is doing something that has a significant risk of failure; you are betting on something that could very well go against you. "Taking an opportunity" is seizing a moment where you can do something to improve your standing in some way (get a raise, get introduced to a person you like, or even something as simple as resting up in preparation for an event later ("I took the opportunity to grab a short nap", for example.)

In other scenarios,"Chance" will tend to refer to a neutral event has some uncertainty attached to it ("there's a chance of rain later today") whereas "Opportunity" will still tend to refer to the possibility of doing something that benefits you. (I don't think you'll ever hear "There's an opportunity of rain later today.")