How to prepare for a chess opponent (step-by-step)
Most club players walk into a game knowing nothing about the person across the board. Strong players do the opposite: they spend 20–40 minutes on targeted prep. Here's the routine.
1. Find their recent games
Look up your opponent on Lichess (or the tournament's pairing site). Recent rated games in your time control matter most; a player's bullet repertoire can be very different from their classical one.
2. Map their repertoire by colour
Write down what they play as White (first move, main systems) and as Black against 1.e4 and 1.d4. You only need the lines they actually play often: three or four openings usually cover 70%+ of their games.
3. Find where they score badly
Frequency tells you what to expect; score tells you where to aim. An opening they play often but score under 45% in is your target.
4. Match it to your own repertoire
Don't learn a whole new opening the night before. Pick the line in your repertoire that steers toward their weak spot, and review one or two model games.
5. Note their tendencies
Do they lose on time? Collapse in long games? Resign early? These shape your practical plan: keep the position complex, play for the clock, or go for a long endgame.
6. Write a one-line plan per colour
"As White: 1.e4, aim for the Open Sicilian (they score 38%). As Black: Caro-Kann, keep queens on." That's it.
Shortcut: OpeningSpy does steps 1–5 automatically from your opponent's last 300 rated Lichess games and hands you the plan in under a minute.