"Don't Even Think of That" by GM Magesh and GM Arun
We have seen what should be done in many of the openings that we discussed over the past several articles, hence today we decided to take a look at some of the big “NO NO” ideas in the Ruy Lopez 9.d4 variation. I (Magesh) am currently touring Australia and participating in chess tournaments here. I have been fortunate enough in the last couple of weeks to win 3 whole points in this variation without much of an effort. That is when it struck me how important it is for people to understand what are things you are *not* supposed to do in an opening, because when you end up trying these poisoned ideas, there will be nothing left to fight for, you will just be trailing behind the whole game without any real chance.
The first game was from the Doebrl Cup which just concluded last week. In this game my opponent who was an International Master who has been playing very well otherwise went down without much of fight as he was tangled with the wrong idea.
A reasonably strong International Master had nothing left to play for after his big mistake. I guess it was just not his day. The second game again was from the same tournament, in fact an earlier round and again it was very convincing and effortless from my side as my opponent struggled with the wrong ideas.
A painful game for my opponent unfortunately. Again there was nothing in that game that troubled me as my opponent ended up with a very passive position allowing me to close the entire queenside giving me all the time in the world to launch my play on the kingside.
The last game today is from the Sydney International Open that is still currently in progress. I have 3.5 points out of four rounds in this tournament as I write this article. The first game in this tournament ended up with the same variation that has pretty much undoubtedly been my chosen variation in this tour!
That unfortunate decision from my opponent to trade the light-squared bishop pretty much ended the game.
The reason we chose to show these games even though they are all not played by Grand Masters is for the readers to understand some of the pitfalls in this variation that can lead to disaster. The next time you encounter this from either side you can keep an eye out for the ideas discussed today.
