Playing in the city championship tomorrow. I'm in first with 4.5/5, and I'm playing an opponent who is at 4/5. One other player is at 4/5, but his loss was to me, so a draw will also give him a guarantee of the championship.

My opponent:

Experienced master, FIDE rating 2230. He is coming off a very strong performance, but suffered an upset in this event to a lower rated player. We played once about 5 years ago, when I won on the white side of a caro kann.

What I expect:

The Ruy Lopez Zaitsev:

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 O-O 9.h3 Bb7 10.d4 Re8 11.Nbd2 Bf8

At this point, there are a lot of options, though I'm not going to play Ng5 and try for the immediate draw as there's nothing on the line but pride of winning the tourney. My first feeling is just to continue in the mainest of main lines:

12.a4 h6 13.Bc2 exd4 14.cxd4 Nb4 15.Bb1 c5 16.d5 Nd7 17.Ra3

Any thoughts, good recent games, stats that people want to contribute? I'll post the results of the game tomorrow night.

Nice!

Unfortunately I can't help in any way on that line as I don't play e4/e5 but I wish you luck!

Btw, why wouldn't you try for a draw? I have no idea of Ng5 will force one but if it basically does it seems silly not to go for it.

What about just grinding him down in the exchange Ruy? Not a fun opening to play for black IMO.

Not really my style...I like having bishops and a more complicated game

First to answer: I want to play for the win. I wouldn't feel comfortable taking an immediate draw, I get to play so infrequently at the moment that if I'm going to sit down to play, I'm going to play to win.

After some review, I've switched my mind and moved to

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 O-O 9.h3 Bb7 10.d4 Re8 11.Nbd2 Bf8

and now instead of 12.a4 as described above, I will play 12.d5.



This move is marked in CB13 as "Hot" and has been played by players like Morozevich, Ivanchuk, Caruana, Svidler, which are pretty good examples to follow. The next couple of moves are relatively forcing:

12...Nb8 13.Nf1 Nbd7



This now leads to a position where there seems to be a lot of debate; for many years, it seems 14.Ng3 was the main line, but in recent years, the theory has moved to 14.N3h2. Both moves have been played by players up to the Kasparov/Anand level which I consider the gold standard. It appears from playing through a number of the games is that the issue with Ng3 is it's a bit too forcing; black basically plays g6 immediately, and is then relatively safe, and white has to re-route the knight. However, if you play 14.N3h2 first, you leave open the option of playing Ng3 later, while delaying to see if black chooses to play g6. If so, you save a move in getting the f1 knight back into the game.



The more common move for black appears to be a choice between 14...h6 (which stops Bg5 but leaves f5 much weaker) or the old school 14...Nc5. The game then continues relatively straightforwardly, as black attempts to open up the center and activate his light squared bishop.

14...Nc5 15.Bc2 c6 16.b4 Ncd7 17.dxc6 Bxc6 18.Bg5 h6



So black has done some reasonable consolidation, but at this point a couple of strategic points come into play. Black's d6 pawn is a mess - it's backwards and weak, and makes the dark squared bishop bad. White on the other hand has a weak and backwards c3 pawn. So, white attempts to basically trade down into the best ending possible.

19.Nxf6 Nxf6 20.Ng4 Nxg4 21.Qxg4 Bd7 22.Qf3 Rc8 23.Bb3 Be6 24.Rec1 Be7 25.Rc2 a5 26.Qd3 Bxb3 27.axb3 axb4 28.Ne3 Rxc3 29.Rxc3 bxc3 30.Qxc3



So, white has shed one pawn. However, his knight is going into d5, the b5 pawn and d6 pawns are going to remain extremely weak, and he has control of both open files. If/when white wins the b5 pawn without trading his knight, the ending will be massively superior for white, and if he somehow fails to win it (or has to trade knight for bishop to win it), the ending is still pretty much unloseable.

Feel free to comment on any of the above, and I'll let you all know how it goes tomorrow.

Source game: Anand-Kasimdzhanov 2007 (which white won).

in this position it's better to maintain tension in the center. against a fide master, you can play straightforwardly and win most of the time. so the obvious plan of kf1-e2-d3 to overprotect d4 and fight for central control should be good enough. good luck, tell us how your tourney goes!

The black knight should be on f6 instead of g4 in the position quoted by Judit... but with the knight on g4, it's better to take it first, otherwise Kd3 runs into Nxf2+. I didn't expect such a rookie move order mistake from a 2820+ player

GL, OP! (I know barely anything about Ruy Lopez, sadly.)

Game result

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 0-0 9.h3 Bb7 10.d4 Re8 11.Nbd2 Bf8 12.d5 Nb8 13.Nf1 Nbd7 14.N3h2 c6 15.dxc6 Bxc6 16.Bg5 h6 17.Bxf6 Nxf6 18.Ng4 Ra7 19.Nxf6+ Qxf6 20.Bd5 Bd7 21.Re3 Be6 22.Rf3 Qd8 23.Ne3 Be7 24.Qb3 Bg5 25.Rd1 Bxe3 26.Rxe3 Qb6 27.Red3 Rc7 28.R1d2 Rc5 29.Qd1 Bxd5 30.Rxd5 Rxd5 31.Rxd5 Re6 32.Kf1 Rf6 33.f3 h5 34.Qd2 Qc6 35.Qe2 Kf8 36.Qd3 Qb6 37.b3 g5 38.c4 g4 39.c5 dxc5 40.Rxe5 gxf3 41.gxf3 c4 42.bxc4 bxc4 43.Qa3+ Kg7 44.Re8 Qb1+ 45.Ke2 Qd3+ 46.Qxd3 cxd3+ 47.Ke3 Rd6 48.Kd2 Rf6 49.Ke3 Rd6



Having achieved the Kd3, supporting d4 central control, a draw was agreed.

So you're the champ, right? Yesss!

Congrats! What is your rating btw?

Around 2100.