user7797: In light of the recent game Nakamura vs Anand, the second time, in the recent candidate's tournament, Anand fell into Nakamura's opening preparation trap out of the reversed sicilian. 
If he [Anand] had realized that he was falling into an opening trap, or opening preparation, is there any possible thing that he could have done to avoid his loss? 
I ask this question to better understand how to respond to obvious opening traps out of really obscure lines, and even traps out of reasonable looking lines. 

user8944: As I see it, at that level they have two options, if they suspect their opponent prepared a trap:

They trust their preparation, and their knowledge, go on as usual, and just make the best moves, and hope for the best. In the Sinquefield cup last year, or the year before, there was a game MVL-Carlsen, when this happened exactly, Carlsen was caught by MVL-s preparation, and after few moves, he found an intresting, very human move, that the engine weren't suggesting, and now MVL was fighting for survival. It was a scotch game I think, it ended in a draw, but worth to watch.
They decide to not take risk, and just chose a sideline, where maybe the other one has an edge, but they can outplay him. Tal writes in 'The life and games of M.T.' about a lot of situations like that, when he choose a sideline, because he was suspecting for some reason that his opponent prepared a suprise.


7797: <p>In light of the recent game Nakamura vs Anand, the second time, in the recent candidate's tournament, Anand fell into Nakamura's opening preparation trap out of the reversed sicilian. </p>

<p>If he [Anand] had realized that he was falling into an opening trap, or opening preparation, is there any possible thing that he could have done to avoid his loss? </p>

<p>I ask this question to better understand how to respond to obvious opening traps out of really obscure lines, and even traps out of reasonable looking lines. </p>
 8944: <p>As I see it, at that level they have two options, if they suspect their opponent prepared a trap:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>They trust their preparation, and their knowledge, go on as usual, and just make the best moves, and hope for the best. In the Sinquefield cup last year, or the year before, there was a game MVL-Carlsen, when this happened exactly, Carlsen was caught by MVL-s preparation, and after few moves, he found an intresting, very human move, that the engine weren't suggesting, and now MVL was fighting for survival. It was a scotch game I think, it ended in a draw, but worth to watch.</p></li>
<li><p>They decide to not take risk, and just chose a sideline, where maybe the other one has an edge, but they can outplay him. Tal writes in 'The life and games of M.T.' about a lot of situations like that, when he choose a sideline, because he was suspecting for some reason that his opponent prepared a suprise.</p></li>
</ul>
