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Opening prep advantage

Someone told me once that being prepared in the opening against someone who is unprepared can give a rating advantage of something like 500 points. I have no idea the exact value of opening prep, but it's certainly worth something.

I played this game as black, in 1997 when I was rated about 1300. My opponent was rated about 2000 at the time and so obviously I had no realistic chance of winning. But on the other hand, I had spent about a week studying variations in my copy of "The Complete Alekhine" by Graham Burgess, and my repertoire choice against the four pawns attack was not the main line, giving at least some surprise value.

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