Lessons From Torquay VII: Wide But Shallow v Deep But Narrow

OLD instructional books often emphasise the importance of knowing a limited opening repertoire in depth.

Frequently switching openings was regarded as a cardinal sin, and a sure bar to improvement.

Some grandmasters took this advice to extremes; Lev Alburt, for example, was (in)famous for his devotion to Alekhine's Defence.

But the advice made particular sense for club players, since nine times out of 10 an opponent would not know what you played.

In those circumstances, sticking to your tried and trusted routine was probably as much of a surprise to the opponent as playing something completely new.

The database age has changed all that, as exemplified by Magnus Carlsen, who plays a huge range of openings, including frowned-upon club favourites such as the Ponziani.

These days, having a limited opening repertoire, however deep, makes you a relatively easy target for an opponent's preparation.

In round seven at Torquay I had white against an opponent who, according to ChessBase's 2024 Mega database, almost always meets 1.e4 with 1...e5.

I opened 1.Nc3, partly hoping he would reply 1...e5, when 2.e4 transposes to double-e pawn openings, but 2.Nf3 is an interesting alternative.

Instead he played 1...d5, which is the most popular continuation.

I could have kept the game in independent lines with 2.e4!?, which is easily the top choice in Mega24, but preferred 2.d4, to which came 2...Nf6.

Popular today is 3.Bf4, the Jobava-Prié, but I played the 'traditional' 3.Bg5, ie the Veresov, to which I was pleased to see the reply 3...e6.

Objectively that is a perfectly reasonable choice, second in popularity only to 3...Nbd7, but it allowed me to continue with 4.e4, making the game a French Classical - hardly what a black double-e pawn player is likely to be looking for.

After the further moves 4...Be7 5.e5 Nfd7 6.h4!? we reached the starting point of the Alekhine-Chatard Attack.

6.h4!? is the top choice of Stockfish16.1 and Dragon1, albeit narrowly over 6.Bxe7, and scores an excellent 61% in Mega24

I cannot claim to be an expert on the variation - this was just my seventh time playing it - but I believe it to be one of those openings that, in the absence of much theoretical knowledge, is easier for the attacker to play.
As it turned out, my opponent told me after the game, which he lost on time at move 28, that he used to play the Alekhine-Chatard with white many years ago, but had forgotten the theory.

LESSON: databases mean having a narrow repertoire is a dangerous business. The player able to make best use of transpositional possibilities can place opponents at a substantial practical disadvantage.