Durarbayli.com

Game of the Week II: Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi (2727) – Shankland, Sam (2708)

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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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 II…

Also, please consider picking up a copy of my first book, “2021 in 52 Games”. Your purchase would support the continuation of this blog series. Thank you for your support!

Game of the Week II – Vidit vs. Shankland

Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this article, please click the “Share” button, and if you find any noteworthy games that you think should appear on Game of the Week, please send us a message on Chess.com.

Please note that Game of the Week will cover games played from Saturday to Saturday of each week, and any games played on Sunday will go to the next week. See you next Sunday! 

Contributors:

Grandmaster Vasif Durarbayli

Edited by Della Almind

Vasif

Vasif Durarbayli is a highly accomplished Azerbaijani chess Grandmaster. He was born on February 24, 1992, in Sumgait, Azerbaijan, and began playing chess at the age of six. Durarbayli quickly showed a talent for the game, winning several national and international chess competitions as a young player. He holds the record for being the youngest player ever to represent the Azerbaijani Olympic chess team, achieving this feat at just 14 years old. To this day, his record has yet to be broken or renewed. He also won the World Youth Chess Championship U14 and the European Youth Chess Championship U18. He was awarded the title of International Master in 2007 at the age of 15 and became a Grandmaster in 2010, at the age of 18. Throughout his career, Durarbayli has competed in and won numerous prestigious chess tournaments, including the Azerbaijani Chess Championship twice (in 2021 and 2023). He was also ranked among the top 16 players in the World Cup in 2021. Durarbayli has represented Azerbaijan in several Chess Olympiads. Currently, he resides in St. Louis, MO.

,
, ,

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *