In the case that I have a tournament game to prepare for, I know (pretty much) what my opponent will play. I can go through theory to prepare, try to do memorisation and whatnot. But what I would much prefer is to actually play a string of games in that opening (at slowish controls). Obviously, the problem is that I am unlikely to see the opening that I want. Is there a way you guys do this?
e.g. If I have an OTB game coming up against someone who I know plays the Caro-Kann, I want to get a few slow games in against the Caro-Kann so that I am used to those structures etc. I know the basics of my lines against the Caro-Kann, and could go over them again. But here on Lichess, I very rarely have opponents play the Caro-Kann against 1.e4. So I can't really remind myself of what my middlegames look like before going in against that opponent.
I'm interested in how others go about this.
(The themed arenas would be quite good for this if you had the luck to have one come up with the opening you needed when you wanted it.)
e.g. If I have an OTB game coming up against someone who I know plays the Caro-Kann, I want to get a few slow games in against the Caro-Kann so that I am used to those structures etc. I know the basics of my lines against the Caro-Kann, and could go over them again. But here on Lichess, I very rarely have opponents play the Caro-Kann against 1.e4. So I can't really remind myself of what my middlegames look like before going in against that opponent.
I'm interested in how others go about this.
(The themed arenas would be quite good for this if you had the luck to have one come up with the opening you needed when you wanted it.)