My Weapon of Choice: The Spanish Game

I don't really spend much time studying openings, but if I was held at gunpoint and forced to pick an opening I'm most comfortable with, I'd have to say it's the Ruy Lopez (Spanish Game).

Lately, I've been practicing the Italian Game a bit, notably the Giuoco Piano and Two Knights Defense, but something about the Ruy Lopez just appeals to me. It doesn't hurt that it was Fischer's opening du jour and perfected opening. And my favorite quote from Kasparov, "No one becomes a grandmaster without playing some great Ruys!"

Well, Little ChessPartner is very fond of the Schliemann Defense, which kind of feels like an Open Sicilain, except from the opposite side of the board.

When presented with task of defending against the Ruy Lopez, it almost always chooses 3. ... a3 (the preferred move) and 3. ... f5.

I decide to open up the game as much as possible to give my tactical ability, the strongest part of my game, an outlet. The computer surprises me right away with 6. ... gxf6. I was fairly certain it would recapture with the Queen, but it decided to strengthen the center at the cost of weakening his Kingside pawns. I'm not sure if 11. ... Kf8? was its best move, but 12. Re1+ would probably have been very strong. Anyway, I was able to relentlessly attack the weakened Kingside position without blundering. I was particularly happy that I was able to play 16. Re3! Part of me wanted to develop my Bishop first, but I wanted to keep my attack going strong, and it worked out very well. Eventually, this led the computer to blundering 22. ... Rg8??

This game was essentially over after the 24th move, but since the computer plays till the bitter end, I was forced to deliver mate 10 moves later. I was also proud of 20. Qg6! which was also quite strong.

this was a really good game!

Chesspartner (Hard) move at 7... Bd6? is troublesome as it hinders any chance of Queen side castling as well as we all know that protecting a pawn with a Bishop when pawn is handy is normally better, plus hinders development of the Queen Bishop. In this case the black King is force to defend itself in a wide open king side and so White has many ways to attack the Black king!

Ringwraith2021

Thanks.

frank713

I don't think 7. Bd6 is necessarily a bad move by the computer, considering the opening variation the computer chose and the alternatives. 7. Bd6 may be an inaccuracy, but it's not a bad way to defend the position. It may not be the move a Master makes, but it may be the type of slight inaccuracy a high-level Class player or Expert would make. But it's only really exposed as a bad move if White can capitalize on the slight error, which I sort of did, I guess.

The Kingside gets weakened right away from the computer choosing the Schliemann Variation. But he does get better control of the center in compensation with 3. ... f5. Black presses the issue even further with 4. ... fxe4. In this position, I noticed that it was very similar to the Open Sicilian: White gains a lead in development and a rapid attack, if he so chooses, but at the cost of one of his center pawns. Of course, this is less dangerous for Black in the Sicilian, because Black is weakening his Queenside pawns in order to gain the advantage in the center. Here, Black is weakening his Kingside.

Black follows up with the very logical and solid 5. ... Nf6, developing his pieces, controlling the center, threatening to exchange pieces, and preparing to castle. White however, is okay with this due to the open nature of his position and attacking chances. So I decide to play 6. Nxf6, thinking that Black will play 6. ... Qxf6. However, Black responds with 6. ... gxf6, which has its pros and cons. What's good about the move is that Black doesn't have to worry about the tempos he will lose with the eventually Bg5 by White threatening his Queen if he did play 6. ... Qxf6. But it comes at the price of weakening his Kingside pawn structure even further.

Sure enough, I see that I have a nice lead in development, so I decide to open up the game by playing 7. d4 and preparing myself for the tactical melee that will ensue shortly. Here is where you say that 7. ... Bd6 is a questionable move.

First it must be noted that Black has to do something about his e-pawn being attacked. He could push the pawn with 7. ... e5, but I don't think Black necessarily wants to create 3 isolated-pawn islands for himself, so the goal of Black's next move is to defend his e-pawn.

7. ... d6 doesn't look like that great of a move because 8. dxe5 leads to a possible Queen trade and an uncastled Black King or Black's Kingside being void of any pawns to shield the King from the coming Queen and Bishops checks and Knight forks by White. So this move is rejected.

7. ... Bg7 looks like a very logical choice, since the g-pawn has already been moved, Black gets to fianchetto his Bishop using only 1 tempo and indirectly protect the e-pawn by controlling the a1-h8 diagonal. You might think this is the move the Masters would make, as it is in the Game Explorer database after all. However, this move actually drops a pawn.

7. ... Bg7 8. dxe5 (if 8. ... fxe5 then White gets to play 9. Bxc6 bxc6 in preparation for the strong 10. Bg5! attacking White's Queen, to which Black is forced to reply with  10. ...  Bf6 and White swoops in with 11. Nxe5 winning a pawn because Black's Bishop is pinned to the Queen! And taking the Bishop looks extremely risky for Black due to the Queen and Knight attacking possibilities White has in that position).

So if Black wants to avoid that whole scenario there he is forced to play 7. ... Bg7 8. dxe5 0-0 and White wins a pawn if he wants to with 9. exf6! So the lines following 7. ... Bg7 don't look that promising for Black, so we completely understand why the computer chose not to play it.

And really, there's not much else to play after that. 7. ... Be7 doesn't look promising because after 8. dxe5 fxe5, Black is again vulnerable due to his pawn structure.

So because of the lack of alternatives and because of the nature of the position that arose out of the opening variation, it makes sense to me why Black played 7. ... Bd6, even though it is not in the Master database, indicating that it is not a move humans would like choose, due to the reasons you mentioned in your post.

Black finds himself at this disadvantage on the 7th move because he chose an unpopular defense to the Spanish Game, and White is making very strong opening moves. I checked my moves with the Master database, and a lot of my moves are the #1 and #2 choices played by the Masters here on Chess.com. I put a lot of pressure on Black during the opening, and he was forced to make the slight inaccuracy of 7. ... Bd6. But like I said earlier, it's only a mistake if White knows how to capitalize on this non-book move. Otherwise, it does accomplish Black's immediate goal of defending the e-pawn, strengthening the center, preserving his pawn structure, and developing his pieces.

True that moves leading to the 7th were not the best by black, as white capitalize on this and the weakness of his follow-up moves leading to the position at move 7 for black. Basically the game showcases how black should be punish for his "weak moves". the chess partner's programming must include openings not popular and allows white to easily win! Hopefully the faulty programming will be fix in the next update and Chess partner will be as (Hard) as it should or avoid this opening in future games. Otherwise Chess Partners rating is (Hard) and should be changed to (Easy) when using this opening!

Good review of game for those trying out the Spanish opening as black and show what you should do as black as white is prepared to counter!!

 It's easy to say LCP played bad, but that's because you made it look really bad. Well done. You gave a very convincing  demonstration of why  ...gxf6 and ...Bd6 were positional blunders.  You say the game was essentially over by move 24... IMO It was over long before that.

frank713

Finally, you admit that I don't just play book, but know how to "punish" off-book moves.

Truth be told, the Ruy Lopez Schliemann Variation is not a weak opening.

First of all, in the database, this is the 3rd most popular defense to the Spanish Game, with the 1st obviously being Morphy's Defense (3. ... a6) and 2nd being the Berlin Defense (3. ... Nf6), which is the current favorite among active GMs.

Second, the Schliemann boasts a higher winning percentage for Black than the two aforementioned defenses: 28.8% so if Black is fighting for the win at all costs, then this might be a variation to consider. The drawback is that more popular variations offer much higher drawing possibilities, so they are the safer and more solid options.

Third, because some players do not know this variation very well, it may make it very difficult on White, even if he or she is very comfortable with the Ruy Lopez. The Schilemann is very sharp, with minimal drawing possibilities, and lots of tactics for players to exploit if they want a full point. A cocky White players could easily find himself down a pawn/piece during the Middle Game.

In conclusion, like JG27Pyth said, it's not that the computer played a weak opening or even played poorly. If you check its moves in the database, they are all Master-level opening moves till Turn 7, where it deviates from the book. Rather, White was able to counter the good moves with slightly better ones. White's moves 1-6 were far from obvious, and a lot of calculation went into each move, like the analysis we did of Black's 7. ... Bd6.

JG27Pyth

Thank you for the high praise. I'm a strong USCF Class A player aspiring to soon become an Expert and then Master. It feels like the road to becoming a Master is extremely long sometimes. But at other times, I have moments of brilliance where I am able to play top-level Master moves against an opponent, and then break down the defense as soon as they deviate from the book.

I think from the viewpoint of a top-level Correspondence Chess player like yourself, if you were presented with the position after 11. ... Kf8, the game pretty much feels over to you: White has an extremely solid position and a lead in development with which to fight aggressively for the win, or at the very least, draw. I think it would be hard for a Master to screw up the position.

However, for high-rated Class-level players and weak Experts, because White hasn't gotten a material advantage yet, there is still a lot of room for him to commit a tactical/positional blunder. As you know, engines are famous for their notoriously strong defense, capable of holding down even the most hopeless positions from a human standpoint. 

For me personally, I feel the game was over after 21. Rxg4. Black is down a piece with no attacking chances. Only an extremely grievous blunder would prevent White from winning/drawing. However, the game was 100% locked after the 24th move, where White executes a 2-move combo to win the Queen.

Again, thanks for the nice words. And thanks for checking out the game. I appreciate the feedback.