proustiskeen wrote on 08/02/13 at 06:03:58:
I studied a new-to-me line in the Alekhine before the tournament. It's in my database of things I play. The guy had 10 games in Megabase. More than one was an Alekhine. So I went over my notes for 10-15 minutes.
Call me crazy, but I don't think this is excessive.
No, that's not excessive. What blew my mind mostly was that a 1400 player had 10 games in a database!
Also, when I discourage "preparation" during a tournament, I'm speaking more of typical open tournaments in the U.S. In these, you often play 2 games (or even 3) in a day, which easily leads to 10+ hours of actually playing chess. Factor in that the pairings are often not posted until shortly before the round, your opponents usually have few games in a database (if you aren't playing people with FIDE titles), and that the pairings are often changed at the last minute because someone requested a bye, and I think that instead of "preparing" between rounds and eating a burger and fries, you should get a healthy meal and try to rest your mind for a short while. 10+ hours of chess is grueling.
If you're only playing one game a day then preparing makes more sense, but still--at the class level I doubt you'll be able to find your opponent's games anyway.
Also, every time my opponents have "prepared" for me between rounds (that I know of), I've ended up winning easy games. One case in point: I was paired against a promising young player (he just became a Master last week) in the last round of the Colorado Open a couple of years ago, and we knew of the pairings a few hours ahead of time. I always play the Saemisch with 6.Bg5, and I'd won all of my previous KID encounters against this player (two in 6...Nbd7 followed by ...e7-e5 lines and one in some other ...e5 line). He spent the hours cramming his head with all of Bologan's recommendations and I had a healthy meal and a quick nap. When we got to the board, this happened:
That was one of the easiest victories against a pretty strong player that I've ever had, honestly.
So maybe I'm crazy or old-fashioned or whatever, but this has happened to me all the time, and I usually win an easy game as a result. So yes, preparation should be done at home, and it should consist of much more than just learning "theory"; it should consist of understanding the plans and the ideas of the specialists in the variation in question (notice that Bologan didn't cover Yusupov's plan in that variation). Any "preparation" done during a tournament should not lead you to purposely play some variation for the first time.
Anyhow that's my philosophy; others may disagree, and that's fair enough. But I find that exercising, resting, and eating well at a tournament is much better than cramming some book lines in your head and worrying about what your opponent may or may not play during your off time.