David L vs Belraim Penhaligon: (Ruy Lopez Chess Game)

This first game of Chess that I played on iGoogle Chess,  was between me (approx ELO rating 1361) and Belraim Penhaligon (approx ELO rating 1063) on 2 December 2009.  It started with a King's Pawn Opening, and I had intended to play a Ruy Lopez against e5.  However, the game took an unexpected turn very early on, and I had to adapt my Chess game to play an unknown variation.  It was a short game of Chess, for sure, and one which I found a little disappointing.  It came from the era before the Chess matching algorithms paired me with decent competition and therefore my Chess games were very variable.

Anway, here we go.

David Leese vs Belraim Penhaligon, December 2009
Ruy Lopez Opening

1.e4 e5

2.Nf3

At this stage, I was expecting to play a classic Ruy Lopez, where Black responds with Nc6 to protect his pawn on e5. However, the game took an unexpected twist.

2.... f6

This is actually a very, very bad move for Black.  White can capture with Nxe5, and after fxe5 White can play Qh5+ and pick up the e5 pawn, causing all kinds of problems for Black.  I didn't see this, and played conservatively:

3.Bc4 Ne7

Maybe my opponent was concerned that I was going to capture the black knight on g8, and hence moved it. My style of Chess isn't like that, and I wasn't aiming to capture his piece - I was looking to develop my pieces. However, his unusual play at this point led me to try something unusual of my own for this game of Chess - a knight sacrifice to disrupt his pawns and to bring my queen quickly to the kingside.  The truth is, Black has no reason, and no right, to play f6 on move 2 and significantly weaken his position in front of his King.  

4.Nxe5 fxe5

This was the idea I mentioned earlier, after move 2, and I was just a little late seeing it.

5.Qf3

The aim of a game of Chess is to get checkmate, it's not always about minor strategic wins and gaining a tempo here and there.  There's nothing more satisfying than at least threatening to win the game through checkmate.

5. .. Ng6

This defence was not enough to prevent a checkmate. The f7 square is a weak spot for Black (for White, the corresponding square is f2) as it is only defended by the king. It's important to defend this area early on - especially if it's being attacked, as it was in this case, by your opponent's pieces.

6.Qf7#

1-0

Six moves is a very short game of Chess, and Black had a few opportunities to improve his position and extend the game; the last effort would be 5 d5 which blocks the Bishop's diagonal, and can be followed up with Qd6 to shut down the line completely.  Things are indeed bad for Black, but they aren't completely beyond repair, especially if you consider that white has sacrificed a Knight to get to this position.

Here are some of my other Ruy Lopez games of Chess (seems everybody wants to play this if they aren't going to use the Patzer opening, of which I have also written a series of articles).

Ruy Lopez with 2 ... f6
Ruy Lopez game with 3 ... Nf6 4 O-O
Ruy Lopez Exchange Variation