Twenty years of engine dominance have not removed preparation — they have moved it.
The standard complaint about modern chess is that preparation has killed creativity in the opening. That was true for perhaps a decade after engines overtook human analysis, when a well-prepared player could walk an opponent into a forced line and emerge with a decisive advantage. It is much less true now, because everyone has the same tools.
Where the returns moved
What has changed is where preparation pays. A novelty in the first fifteen moves is worth far less when the opponent’s team will have checked the same line. The returns have moved to positions that engines evaluate as roughly equal but where the human practical difficulties are asymmetric — a slightly worse structure that is far harder to defend than to attack.
A different kind of player
That rewards a different kind of player. Memorisation is worth less; judgement about which equal position is unpleasant to face is worth more. The strongest players of the last few years are, notably, not the ones with the best opening files.
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