After little exploring of Rui Lopez opening I decided to play a little on Lichess. I discovered that I notice possibilities better now. My rating dropped bellow 1800, but today I won like black against xatoxato and I check mated him in effective way. I was not to smart in opening, but final few moves were good. Opponent gets greedy on pawns on right flank and underestimated danger of check mate. This is final position:
He made strange move c3 in early stage of the game. I guess he wanted to do d5 to conquer center. I replied with developing my other Knight and he moved his Bishop in front of d pawn in strange way. In his next move I udenrstood his intention which was to move light Bishop to c2. I was in dilemma as it was not my favourite Ruy Lopez opening. Dilemma was should I retreat dark Bishop on e7 or do castle. I decided for castle. I felt he has initiative and knew in advance he will do d4 in next move.
I replied with check with following Bishop Knight exchange and moving d pawn. I didn't like how board looked after this because white conquered center fields. I thought it is going to be one of those games where I developed badly and where other side will do unstoppable attack on my king. For some reason he didn't put his dark Bishop on g5. He decided to do castle and gave me chance for h6 move which prevents future Bishop g5. His Rook went on e8 obviosly preparing to push e pawn further down. I decided to attack and pin his Knight and to initiate Bishop-knight exchange to let his Bishop pair fight against my Knights pair in rest of the game. I've heard terrene Knights can be successful against Bishops.
It was obvious he will push e pawn and I decided to retreat Knight in advance. He noticed good combination and went with Queen on f4 threatening check mate after e5. Situation went from bad to worse for black here. I didn't notice any chance except to offer Queen exchange. I noticed he can refuse and go to d7 and attack right flank. However he decided to move to b5. I made strange move Knight b8 to protect that b7 pawn. I could do it with Rook too, but thought he could move d pawn too and force Knight retreat so I did it in advance. I went in attack on white Queen with my c pawn after which he retreated on line 1, making covered double attack on h7 Knight.
Queen h4 was my attempt to become more active in this position. After he finally push e pawn down, my Knight jumped on g5. He was into Bishop-Knight exchange and advancing with e pawn on d6. That pawn became nightmare now. My Knight jumped on e4 in attempt to make him some kind of trap if he do Qb7 which he did. Knight f4 was direct check mate threat!
Of course I knew he can do Qc6 and protect check mate, but hoped I can force Queen away from that defending diagonal.Rook a8-c8. He moved to f3. And now ladies and gentleman prepare for cracking move Rook c3! Nice distraction for white Queen! I don't know why he didn't just move Queen to e4 threatening check mate to me after which I would initiate Queen+Knight for Queen+Bishop+Pawn exchange. Computer analyse shows I would lose this game after. He made not to clever Bishop move which was like free Queen giveaway and received direct check mate after!
I guess my trap was not to clever too, but we are just amateur players well under categories and titles who play just for fun. If you want to track entire game you can do it here.
Thanks for reading and remember study of chess openings pays! :)
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