The most common answer is “My Laptop”, which sounds awful until you realise that professional players spend their days pouring their creative output into a computer.  All that meticulous work on missed chances in previous games, or fresh ideas in the opening cannot possibly be committed to memory. 

Before my time players kept boxes of index cards but now everything goes straight on to the laptop, squirreled away for an opportune moment.  Garry Kasparov may be retired, but his laptop would be a true Library of Alexandria, brimming with prepared novelties which now may never see the light of day. The young German Arkadij Naiditsch unleashed a powerful new move on Vladimir Kramnik and won in style.  According to Chessbase.com, Kasparov, watching the game, admitted he had looked at an almost identical idea back in 1999!

Arkadij Naiditsch - Vladimir Kramnik
(Dortmund, 2008)

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.d4 d5 6.Bd3 Nc6 7.0–0 Be7 8.Re1 Bg4 9.c4 Nf6 10.Nc3 Bxf3 11.Qxf3 Nxd4 12.Qd1 Ne6 13.cxd5 Nxd5 14.Bb5+ c6 15.Nxd5 cxb5 16.Bf4! Nxf4  The problem is that 16...0–0 17.Nxe7+ Qxe7 18.Bd6 nets an exchange.  17.Rxe7+ Kf8 18.Re5 Qd6  (see diagram)  19.Qd2! The new move!  Kasparov had looked at this with the inclusion of 16.a4 b4 a few moves earlier.  19...Ng6?   Black had to try 19...Qxe5 20.Qb4+ Ke8 (20...Kg8 21.Ne7+ Kf8 22.Ng6+! wins) 21.Qxb5+ (21.Re1 Ne2+ 22.Kf1 is also unclear) 21...Kd8 22.Rd1 Ne2+ 23.Kh1 Nd4 24.Qxb7 Rc8 25.Ne3 with an unclear game - you can bet Naiditsch had analysed this deeply.  20.Ree1 f6 21.Rad1  White's huge lead in development is soon converted into something tangible.  21...Kf7 22.Qe3 Rhe8 23.Ne7! Qxe7 24.Qb3+ Kf8 25.Rxe7 Rxe7 26.Qxb5 Rae8  Black has slim chances to set up a fortress but Naiditsch's technique is up to scratch and he won in 42 moves...  1–0

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