Prepped to death

One of the differences between club chess and tournament chess is the level of opening preparation you face. In almost every game I have played so far, my opponents have prepared a specific opening line against me. Sometimes it works for them, and sometimes it doesn't.
I lost a horrible game in round 2 after missing a opening tactic, but for some reason my round 4 opponent avoided playing the same line. Instead he thought he would avoid my previous opening choices, but instead played into a Gruenfeld, which is an opening I have played for about 15 years.
But rather than show that game (which ended in a draw) I'll show an example where prep worked to deadly effect. Harry Press noticed his opponent played the same line of the Veresov, and after some investigation found a nice idea involving Ba3!!. His opponent started to go wrong straight away, and after another 5 moves resigned a he was about to lose a rook.


Salewski,Bernd - Press,Harry [D01]
London Chess Classic Under 2050, 15.12.2016

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nc3 d5 3. Bg5 Nbd7 4. f3 c6 5. e4 dxe4 6. fxe4 e5 7. dxe5 Qa5 8. Bxf6 gxf6 9. exf6 Ba3 10. bxa3 Qxc3+ 11. Kf2 Nxf6 12. Bd3 Qd4+ 13. Ke1 Ng4 14. Be2 Qc3+ 0-1