Every club player has one: the opponent you meet two or three times a season, in the league, in the club championship, at the county congress. You know each other's habits a little. With some preparation you can know them a lot better, and so can they.
Collect the games
Preparation starts with the games you have already played against them. Find every scoresheet you can and put the games in one place. If they are on paper, type them in; if a league or congress published them, import the file. Make sure each one has the right player, the date and the event, because that is what lets you put them side by side.
In Plyfolio, players have their own page with a head to head: every game against one opponent, the score between you, and the games in order. Five games side by side tell you far more than five games in a drawer.
What do they play against you?
Start with the openings, separately for each colour. Most club players are consistent: the same first move, the same reply to yours, the same set-up. Note where each game left familiar ground, and who left it.
- With White, do they always open the same way?
- With Black, what do they play against your first move?
- Is there a line they have played twice and you have answered differently each time?
Where do the games turn?
Openings are the easy part to prepare. More useful is where your games have actually been decided. Look for patterns: do they get short of time? Do they avoid endgames, or seek them? Do your losses come from the same kind of position? Review each game with your own notes first, then with the engine, and mark the moment each one turned.
Look at your own side too. If you lost three games to the same opponent from good positions, the problem may be how you play when you are ahead, not anything they did.
Prepare a plan, not lines
Club games leave theory early. Rather than learning twenty moves of a line they may not play, decide on a plan you are comfortable with against what they usually do: a set-up, a pawn structure, the kind of middlegame you want. Write it down as a few sentences in the notes of the most relevant game.
Then look at the one or two moments where your plan could go wrong, and know what you will do there. That is usually enough.
On the night
Read your notes once before you leave home, not at the board. Then play the position in front of you. If they surprise you with something new, that is useful too: write it down afterwards, because it is the first thing to look at before the next game.
Keep it friendly
Your rival is very likely a clubmate, and preparing for them is a compliment. Keep your notes to yourself, shake hands, and go over the game together afterwards. Then add it to the others: next season, there will be one more game to learn from.
Written by Remiam. More from Remiam