Sitting Duck

MAGNUS Carlsen, the former world champion and still the top-rated player, is famous for having a wide opening repertoire.

He is not alone, for long gone are the days when it was thought advisable at the elite level to study the opening deeply but narrowly.

With the growth of databases, what applies at the top is probably almost equally applicable much further down the pecking order.

This was brought home to me in round six at Cap Negret when I had the white pieces against a candidate master with a rating almost 300 points higher than mine.

Playing him was always going to be a daunting prospect, but it was made much less so by discovering that with black he more-or-less restricts himself to systems with an early ...c6.

Not only that, but it soon became clear he sticks to certain lines within his systems.

Our game began 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.c4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.cxd5 Bg7 7.Qb3 0-0 8.Be2 Nbd7 9.Bf3 Nb6 10.Nge2 Bg4 11.Bxg4 Nxg4

There are 424 games with this position in ChessBase's 2023 Mega database

I played the most popular continuation, 12.a4, and my opponent sank into thought.

I knew that 11 years previously he had played 12...a5, drawing with a player rated 139 elo lower.

Against me he preferred the somewhat strange-looking 12...Qc8!?, after which the engines reckon White has the upper hand.

I failed to make the most of my position, and the game was eventually drawn, but I do think it shows how a very limited opening repertoire can make a player something of a sitting duck.