Game of the Week II-Vidit,Santosh Gujrathi (2727) - Shankland,Sam (2708)
Suddenly, your opponent plays a line that he has never played before according to your preparation. What should you do?
First, take a break for a moment before playing your mainline home prep. I would recommend spending at least 5 minutes trying to understand what is happening. There are a few likely scenarios:
- Your competitor had deeply studied a new opening recently. Unfortunately, your game is the first to incorporate this new opening that will make the database.
- Previously, your performance in that opening was poor, or your opponent found a “hole” that could be exploited, so they aim to use that against you without deep study.
- Your opponent has seen a trendy idea that they want to employ as soon as possible before it becomes a piece of common knowledge.
The good news is that, most probably, your opponent is not well-aware of the subtle nuances of the position in all 3 cases. However, the first scenario is more dangerous compared to the other 2 cases. On the other hand, not having classical games with that opening under the belt makes the opponent vulnerable as well. The position in an over-the-board competitive game feels totally different than in prep!
Hopefully, you can figure out which category your opponent falls into. If not, then a well-known path to limit risk could be handy in all 3 cases: Play a rare line that you’ve studied a bit and would likely be overlooked by your opponent.
This brings us to the Game of the Week…
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Game of the Week- Vidit vs. Shankland
