C64 Spanish Game: Classical Defence (3...Bc5) except 4.O-O Nf6 (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Bc5 4.Nxe5)

This was played in the first round of the Roy Lopez Classical Tournament. In this tournament I was not able to go to the second round which is currently a good thing as I like to minimize the amount of games that are still ongoing. My opponent of this game not only won our group but also the tournament. I was 3rd in the final standings of the group consisting of six players. It did not take long for one of the players to make a horrible move, DEEPERGRAY'S 7th move was so a bad that it could meant a loss for my opponent.

In order to punish my opponent from the mistake, I needed to continue with the move 7...c6. I just happily castled, ignorant of my chance to get a winning advantage. That was actually the only moment in the game when one of the players could have taken a winning advantage. The rest of the game continued to be quite well played by both players up to the last move of the game 37...R8e6.

Game number two. This was played in the first round of a Ruy Lopez thematic tournament at Chess.com. The tournament has gone really well for me so far, I have won 33 games, four games ended in draws and no losses!! This is one of the tournaments that has the longest time controls you can get in tournaments at Chess.com, which is 14 days per move. I was the first player to mess up, I castled on move 8, which the engine thinks is a mistake.

Good replies to 8...O-O were 9.Kg1 and 9.d4. The reason why I had to play either 8...Ng6 or 8...d5 was that otherwise my knight at f6 will get pushed back to the awful square e8. Knights_23 played d3 instead and the position was roughly even once again. The equality lasted until knights_23 blundered with the move 15.Qxf4?

Taking with the queen was bad due to the reply 15...Qc5+ and the pawn on c2 was lost. The game quickly ended after that to my opponent's resignation.

[Event "Roy Lopez Classical Tournament - Round"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2014.09.07"] [Round "?"] [White "DEEPERGRAY"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "C64"] [WhiteElo "1978"] [BlackElo "1914"] [Annotator "Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "74"] [EventDate "2014.??.??"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Bc5 {Thematic Game - This is the starting position. Spanish Game: Classical Variation} 4. Nxe5 {C64 Spanish Game: Classical Defence (3...Bc5) except 4.O-O Nf6} (4. O-O Nf6 5. c3 O-O 6. d4 Bb6 7. Bg5 { Spanish Game: Classical Variation. Modern Main Line}) 4... Bxf2+ 5. Kxf2 Nxe5 6. Rf1 Nf6 {Black threatens to win material: Nf6xe4} (6... c6 7. Be2 d6 8. d4 Ng6 9. Kg1 N8e7 10. Bd3 O-O 11. Qh5 Be6 12. h3 Qd7 13. Nc3 f6 14. Bd2 Bf7 15. Qf3 c5 16. d5 Ne5 17. Qg3 Kh8 18. a4 Nxd3 19. cxd3 Ng6 20. Ne2 Rae8 21. Bc3 { De la Villa Garcia,J (2440)-Mayer,R (2235) Alcobendas 1993 1-0 (62)}) 7. Qe2 $4 $146 {a transit from better to worse} (7. Nc3 O-O 8. Kg1 c6 9. Be2 d5 10. d4 Ng6 11. Bg5 h6 12. Bxf6 gxf6 13. exd5 cxd5 14. Qd2 Kg7 15. Bf3 Be6 16. Rae1 Qd6 17. Qf2 Rad8 18. Be2 Bc8 19. Bf3 Be6 20. Be2 Bc8 21. Bd3 a6 {Schwab,P-Talmon,T Germany 1998 1-0 (58)}) (7. Kg1 c6 8. Be2 (8. Ba4 d5 9. exd5 O-O 10. d4 { 1/2-1/2 (10) Taistra,E-Feige,M Gruenheide 1997}) 8... Qb6+ 9. d4 d6 10. Kh1 Nxe4 11. dxe5 Nf2+ 12. Rxf2 Qxf2 13. exd6 Bf5 14. Nc3 Bxc2 15. d7+ Kd8 16. Bg5+ f6 17. Qxc2 fxg5 18. Rf1 Qh4 19. Qf5 Kc7 20. Qe5+ Kb6 21. b3 a6 {Metev,M (2004) -Le Borgne,R (1707) Sofia 2015 1-0}) (7. Kg1 c6 8. Ba4 d6 $16) 7... O-O $4 { Black lets it slip away} (7... c6 $142 $5 8. Bd3 Qb6+ 9. Ke1 d5 $17) 8. Kg1 { White king safety improved} (8. d4 $5 {has some apparent merit} Ng6 9. Kg1 $11) 8... c6 $15 {Black threatens to win material: c6xb5} 9. Ba4 d6 (9... d5 10. exd5 Neg4 11. d4 Nxd5 12. h3 $15) 10. h3 {Secures g4} (10. d4 Bg4 11. Qe3 Ned7 $11) 10... Be6 (10... Qb6+ 11. Kh1 Qd4 12. Nc3 $15) 11. Bb3 $11 Re8 12. d4 { White threatens to win material: d4xe5} Ned7 13. Nc3 Bxb3 14. axb3 h6 { Consolidates g5} 15. Qf3 Qe7 16. Bd2 a6 {Controls b5} 17. Rae1 Qf8 18. Qg3 Kh7 (18... Re6 19. d5 cxd5 20. exd5 Rxe1 21. Rxe1 $11) 19. Qd3 (19. Rf5 Re6 $16) 19... Kh8 (19... Kg8 20. Bf4 $11) 20. Nd1 Re6 21. Bb4 c5 {Black threatens to win material: c5xb4} 22. Bc3 (22. d5 Rxe4 23. Rxe4 Nxe4 24. Qxe4 cxb4 25. Qxb4 b5 $11) 22... Rae8 23. Nf2 cxd4 24. Bxd4 Nc5 {Increasing the pressure on the isolated pawn on e4} 25. Bxc5 dxc5 26. Re2 Qe7 27. Rfe1 Qc7 28. Qf3 Kg8 (28... b5 29. Kh1 $15) 29. Nd3 $11 Nd7 30. Nf4 Re5 31. Nd5 {White threatens to win material: Nd5xc7} Qc6 32. c4 b5 33. Qd3 Nb6 34. Kf2 {White king safety dropped} Kf8 35. Re3 Nc8 36. Nc3 Nd6 37. Nd5 {An ideal square for the white knight.} R8e6 1/2-1/2 [Event "Ruy Lopez - Round 1"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2014.10.10"] [Round "?"] [White "knights_23"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C64"] [WhiteElo "1418"] [BlackElo "1840"] [Annotator "Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "34"] [EventDate "2014.??.??"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 {Thematic Game - This is the starting position.} Bc5 {Spanish Game: Classical Variation} 4. Nxe5 {C64 Spanish Game: Classical Defence (3...Bc5) except 4.O-O Nf6} (4. b4 {Spanish Game: Classical Variation. Spanish Wing Gambit}) (4. c3 Bb6 {Spanish Game: Classical Variation. Charousek Variation} (4... d5 {Spanish Game: Classical Variation. Konikowski Gambit})) 4... Bxf2+ 5. Kxf2 Nxe5 6. Rf1 c6 (6... Nf6 7. Kg1 c6 8. Be2 Qb6+ 9. d4 d6 10. Kh1 Nxe4 11. dxe5 Nf2+ 12. Rxf2 Qxf2 13. exd6 Bf5 14. Nc3 Bxc2 15. d7+ Kd8 16. Bg5+ f6 17. Qxc2 fxg5 18. Rf1 Qh4 19. Qf5 Kc7 20. Qe5+ Kb6 21. b3 {Metev,M (2004)-Le Borgne,R (1707) Sofia 2015 1-0}) 7. Be2 Nf6 $146 {Black threatens to win material: Nf6xe4} (7... d5 8. exd5 cxd5 9. Bb5+ Bd7 10. Bxd7+ Qxd7 11. Re1 Qd6 12. d4 Qb4 13. Nc3 f6 14. dxe5 fxe5 15. Qh5+ Kd8 16. Qxe5 Nf6 17. a3 Qa5 18. Qe7+ Kc8 19. Qxg7 Qd8 20. Qg3 Rf8 21. Kg1 Qb6+ 22. Kh1 {Moreno, A-Alshasmeary,D Linares 2007 0-1}) (7... d6 8. d4 Ng6 9. Kg1 N8e7 10. Bd3 O-O 11. Qh5 Be6 12. h3 Qd7 13. Nc3 f6 14. Bd2 Bf7 15. Qf3 c5 16. d5 Ne5 17. Qg3 Kh8 18. a4 Nxd3 19. cxd3 Ng6 20. Ne2 Rae8 21. Bc3 Bxd5 22. Nf4 {De la Villa Garcia, J (2440)-Mayer,R (2235) Alcobendas 1993 1-0 (62)}) (7... Qh4+ 8. Kg1 Qe7 9. d4 Ng6 10. Nc3 b5 11. e5 d5 12. exd6 Qxd6 13. Ne4 Qd8 14. Nc5 N8e7 15. Bf3 O-O 16. Bg5 h6 17. Bxc6 Rb8 18. Bxe7 Nxe7 19. Bf3 Nf5 20. Qd2 Qxd4+ 21. Qxd4 Nxd4 22. c3 {Liebert,E-Janska,J (1705) Mureck 2011 0-1 (50)}) 8. Nc3 O-O (8... Ng6 9. d4 d5 10. exd5 Nxd5 11. Nxd5 Qxd5 12. Kg1 $14) 9. d3 (9. d4 $5 Ng6 10. Kg1 $14) 9... d5 $11 10. exd5 Nxd5 11. Nxd5 Qxd5 12. Kg1 {White king safety improved} ( 12. d4 Ng6 13. Kg1 Bf5 $11) 12... Be6 (12... Qd4+ 13. Kh1 $11) 13. Bf4 Ng6 14. Qd2 Nxf4 {Black has a mate threat} 15. Qxf4 $2 (15. Rxf4 $142 $5 {and White can hope to survive} Rfe8 16. d4 $11) 15... Qc5+ $17 16. Kh1 (16. Rf2 $5 Qxc2 17. Qb4 $17) 16... Qxc2 $19 17. Rab1 $4 {the final mistake, not that it matters anymore} (17. Bf3 $142 Qxd3 18. Rfd1 $19) 17... Qxe2 0-1