C67 Spanish Game: Berlin Defence, 4.O-O Nxe4 (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.O-O Nxe4 5.Re1)

The short game below was played in the first round of the Ruy Lopez tournament that is still in progress at Chess.com. The time limit for each move is 14 days in this tournament and that means that it is a tournament with the longest possible timeout that you can have in a Chess.com tournament. Some players take their time with their moves and others expected to play this tournament like blitz, so they complain about the time their opponents use for their moves... I really do not understand players who think that they can finish a tournament like this quickly. I mean if you are not going to like really long lasting games, why are you playing with these time controls anyway? I guess some people do not understand that correspondence chess is not meant to be a sprint but a marathon. I won the group 1 and from out of the 22 games I played on round one I won 21 and drew 1. I have still avoided losing a game even though round two is 3 games away from finishing on my part. On round two I have finished 15 games, out of which I have won 12 and drawn 3 games. I do have one thing to mention about the way the games have started, the second game against the same opponent only starts after the first one is finished, which is not really necessary in my opinion with these long time controls. All the games could have started at the same time, just to save some time.

It did not take long for my opponent to blunder. Already in his 5th move jcsk8 made a huge mistake. Jcsk8 played 5...Ng5 in the position below. The best option for my opponent was 5...Nd6.

I did not play the most accurate move in reply unfortunately and played 6.Bxc6, letting my opponent off the hook as the position was about even once again. I should have of course played 6.Nxg5 instead. Jcsk8 replied correctly with 6...dxc6 to the move I played in the game. I continued with 7.Nxe5 obviously and in order to stay in the game jcsk8 should have blocked the e-file by playing either 7...Be7 or 7...Ne6. The former being the move I would prefer. Jcsk8 made the game losing blunder instead when he played 7...Qf6, which allowed me to play 8.Ng4+ and be in a completely winning position. My opponent resigned after my 8th move.

[Event "Ruy Lopez - Round 1"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2015.04.20"] [Round "?"] [White "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Black "jcsk8"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C67"] [WhiteElo "1887"] [BlackElo "1254"] [Annotator "Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "15"] [EventDate "2015.??.??"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 {Thematic Game - This is the starting position.} Nf6 4. O-O Nxe4 {Spanish Game: Berlin Defense. Rio Gambit Accepted} 5. Re1 { C67 Spanish Game: Berlin Defence, 4.O-O Nxe4} (5. d4 Nd6 (5... Be7 6. Qe2 Nd6 7. Bxc6 bxc6 8. dxe5 Nf5 {Spanish Game: Berlin Defense. Cordel Variation}) 6. Bxc6 dxc6 7. dxe5 Ne4 {Spanish Game: Berlin Defense. l'Hermet Variation, Westerinen Line} (7... Nf5 8. Qxd8+ Kxd8 9. Nc3 Bd7 {Spanish Game: Berlin Defense. Berlin Wall})) 5... Ng5 6. Bxc6 dxc6 (6... Nxf3+ 7. Qxf3 bxc6 8. Rxe5+ Be7 9. d3 Rb8 10. b3 O-O 11. Bb2 Bf6 12. Qg3 g6 13. d4 Bxe5 14. Qxe5 f6 15. Qg3 Qe8 16. h3 d6 17. Nd2 Bf5 18. c4 c5 19. dxc5 dxc5 20. Qxc7 Qe2 21. Bc3 { Martinez Gueldos,F (1690)-Marti de Toro,X (1535) Santa Eulalia de Roncana 2016 1-0}) 7. Nxe5 (7. Rxe5+ Ne6 8. Nc3 Bd6 9. Re1 O-O 10. d4 Qf6 11. d5 cxd5 12. Nxd5 Qg6 13. Nh4 Qh5 14. Qxh5 g6 15. Qe2 c6 16. Nf6+ Kg7 17. Ne4 Nf4 18. Bxf4 Bxf4 19. Qf3 f5 20. Qxf4 fxe4 21. Qxe4 Bf5 {Kabanova, Y-Wijesuriya,G (2089) Kemer 2009 1-0}) 7... Qf6 $4 $146 (7... Be7 8. d4 O-O 9. c3 Bf5 10. Nd2 Qd5 11. Nf1 Be4 12. Ne3 Qe6 13. N3g4 f6 14. Bxg5 fxe5 15. Bxe7 Qxe7 16. Rxe4 Rf4 17. Rxe5 Qd7 18. f3 Raf8 19. Qb3+ Kh8 20. Rae1 Qf7 21. Qxf7 R4xf7 22. Re7 {Lozano Marques, M-Dos Reis Cabrera,J Cotelec 2009 1-0}) (7... Qd5 8. Ng6+ Kd8 9. Nxh8 Bd6 10. Qe2 Be6 11. d3 Bb4 12. c3 Ba5 13. f4 Qc5+ 14. d4 Qc4 15. fxg5 Qxe2 16. Rxe2 Bg4 17. Nxf7+ Kd7 18. Ne5+ Kd6 19. Nxg4 Rf8 20. Nd2 Bb6 21. Nc4+ Kd5 22. Nge3+ {Arenkov,W-Hamann,P Oberbernhards 2004 1-0 (32)}) (7... Be7 $142 $11 { was much better}) 8. Ng4+ $18 (8. Ng4+ Qe7 9. Rxe7+ Bxe7 10. d3 $18) 1-0