having been a lifelong sicilian devotee (first dragon, then Najdorf/Scheveningen, then classical) I want to broaden my horizon and finally get into the open games a bit more. I'm willing to contest a classical Ruy here. I've played Nikachu in a recent 2+2 open and he played the 8. a4 line in the closed Ruy, to which i reacted badly and had to fight hard not to lose. Nikitheone played the same line and again i went wrong. I booked up a bit on that line prior to the game and hope i get it right this time, but i would prefer seeing a main line Chigorin Ruy because i figure i could learn a lot from this game by analysing and verbalizing my thoughts.
I hope this spoiler impresses Nikachu a bit and makes him worry
"Don't give away pawns in the opening" was one of the basic principles Edmar Mednis formulated in his book about general openings and that stuck with me. So i won't blunder a pawn with moves like f5, d5 or Nf6 (lol) and continue on my path straight to the spanish torture chamber.
Felt a pretty huge wave of relief seeing 2.Nc6. I'm generally a very aggressive/tactical player. Solid drawish positions usually leaves me overextending to fight for a win which costs me most of my losses.
not a fan of Bxc6 because it goes against my philosophy as white. You have the initiative so you must keep as much tension on the board as possible. After dxc6 the position will feel like a Berlin wall with queens on the board except mine is suffocating behind pawns. Of course white is fine but it's not the game I want to play. You can't play any opening because it's popular or is easy to remember theory. I have to play positions that suit my style.
as far as i know, the only decent alternative at this point is 4. ...d6, the improved Steinitz-defence. I have no knowledge of this line, so Nf6 is an automatic move for me at this juncture. The big split of lines comes after 5. 0-0, when there are Nxe4 (the open defence), Bc5 (i never know if this goes by the Archangelsk, the Neo-Archangelsk, the Moeller or some other name) and Be7 (the closed Ruy). I'll elaborate on these options when it's time for it.
Wow that's a huge spoiler, but he didn't take long to write, so i assume it's some naked chick.
As promised, a quick overview of Black's options:
- Nxe4, the open Ruy. Black wins a pawn but has to give it back soon to complete development and not run into trouble on the open central files. Can lead to lively play, but also quite technical positions where white tries to convert the better pawn structure, which arises after white plays d4, gets his pawn back on e5 and puts a minor piece on d4 which black has to take sooner or later, moving white's c-pawn one file to the right. Pics or it doesn't happen, so it looks like this:
I've never played nor studied the line, so i'll steer clear of that.
- The Bc5-lines:
I know even less about them (like i said, not even the proper name). I've seen some Shirov and Caruana games from Wijk aan Zee that suggested that Black sacs a pawn on b5, plays Bg4-xf3 and tries to make something of the weak dark squares in white's camp. If i remember correctly, there were some piece sac for 2.5 pawns lines and novelties tend to come around move 27 and change evaluations a lot, so i'll steer clear of that line also. Maybe Smilingbill can chime in if i'm right or wrong, he posted a nice win over a GM not so long ago.
- Be7, the closed ruy. Tried and tested since 200 years, and one of those lines where every deviation has the name of an all-time great like Chigorin, Rubinstein, Breyer, Smyslov or Keres. Comparable to the Rubinstein (4.e3) Nimzo where you have variations named after all the post-war greats like Botwinnik, Hübner, Fischer, Taimanov and many others. I like those systems because you get touched by a breeze of history that doesn't smell slightly stale like in the King's Gambit. These systems are ancient, but present problems and mysteries that are far from solved today.
This is not an opening for "better burn out than fade away" players, if you die here it's a slow and painful death.
Here we enter the realm of concrete tactics. 6...b5 is necessary to keep the e-pawn protected. Earlier Bxc6 followed by Nxe5 wasn't a problem because Black gets his pawn back by Qd4, attacking both the Ne5 and the pawn on e4. Now white has protected this pawn and thus Qd4 can be answered by Nf3 in above sequence.
The other way to protect e5, namely 6. ...d6, is worse because it allows 7. Bxc6 and Black can no longer take back with the d-pawn which is preferable in the exchange Ruy because it allows Black easy development and keeps his pawn structure more intact than bxc6. Additionally, white can also just play 7. c3, keeping the extra option of retreating the Ba4 to c2 in one move instead of the usual two-step b3-c2. The usual reaction in other lines (for example the Giuoco pianissimo where white often plays Bc4-b3-c2) would be an early d5 by black, but here black has already played d6, thus losing a tempo. And after c3 and d4, Black cannot do forever without b5 because giving up the centre completely by exd4 is generally not favourable if he cannot drum up concrete counterplay after that which i don't see here.
So b5 is necessary sooner or later to avoid losing e5, and the best moment is now.
Two Plus Two
Linear Mode
