How to prepare for a specific chess opponent

Opponent prep begins with their history, not guesswork. Look at their most-played openings with both colours and how they score in each. Public games on Lichess and Chess.com give you everything you need: their repertoire, their results, and the lines they reach most often.

The goal is the overlap between their weakness and your strength. A line where they score poorly is only useful if you are comfortable playing it. Good preparation finds openings that trouble them and that you already know, so you play confidently instead of memorising something alien under pressure.

Audit Chess scouts any Lichess or Chess.com player: it ranks their openings by their own results, flags the soft spots, and recommends lines matched to your repertoire - free, in your browser.

Memorising twenty moves fails the moment they deviate. Prepare the ideas: the pawn breaks, the piece placements, the typical plans of the structure you are steering toward. Understanding the resulting middlegame beats rote lines and survives any surprise on move six.

For an online game or a casual match, 15-20 minutes of opponent research is plenty: find their most played opening with each colour and know the rough plan. For a rated tournament game against a specific known opponent, an hour of targeted prep - their repertoire, their worst scoring lines, a few key positions - is appropriate.

Do not over-prepare for one player and under-prepare for yourself. The best opponents spend the majority of their preparation time building a solid personal repertoire and reserve targeted prep as an addition, not a replacement.

Even well-prepared players face surprises. When your opponent leaves your preparation, stop trying to remember moves and start applying the principles of the structure. Ask: what is the typical plan here? What piece is misplaced? What pawn break is available?

Preparation should teach you positions, not just moves. A player who understands why the Caro-Kann leads to particular structures handles surprises better than one who memorised twelve moves and stopped there.