ruy lopez chogorin variation question
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chessprogammer
Jan 7, 2021
0
#1
hello i was wondering why in the chigorin variation of the ruy lopez, the knight derogate to basic principle to move to a5 attacking the bishop at b3. i learned that a knight should not go at the band but the chigorin line say it is a good move.
in the main line the bishop should hide in c2. I wonder why is it preferable to loose a tempo hiding the bishop since in the italian game it seems that taking with the a rook pawn would open up a file to the rook.
We bring the bishop back to keep the bishop pair, which can be useful once the position opens up. The knight goes to a5, to attack the bishop, from where it can move back if necessary.
if the knight on a5 stayed there and nothing happens on that part of the board then it would be badly placed. however it gains a tempo by attacking the bishop which white in theory shouldn't give up. getting the a-file open wouldn't give white anything as at the very least black can just play a6 and ignore the rook on a1, while in the long run the bishop pair will matter. that's why white usually plays bc2. now black can follow-up with c5 showing another point of na5, which is to free the c-pawn to fight for the center, and then maybe go back to c6 to fight for the center even more. also, having driven the bishop to c2 means that now black does not have to worry about ng5 ideas should he move the rook to e8 for example.
of course na5 still has its drawbacks and in the main line white tries to show those, mainly by trying to play in the center with d4, and sometimes even d5 before the knight can go back to c6.
The Nc6 blocks the advance of Black's c-pawn, and black wants to use that pawn to grab space and challenge the white center. After Na5, black usually follows with c5.
Sometimes it doesn't help to look at a move in isolation, when it's actually part of a plan. Black isn't just putting his knight on the rim. The idea is Na5, c5, Nc6 and now the knight and c-pawn both put pressure on white's center.
Jan 7, 2021
0
#5
Laskersnephew wrote:
The Nc6 blocks the advance of Black's c-pawn, and black wants to use that pawn to grab space and challenge the white center. After Na5, black usually follows with c5.
Sometimes it doesn't help to look at a move in isolation, when it's actually part of a plan. Black isn't just putting his knight on the rim. The idea is Na5, c5, Nc6 and now the knight and c-pawn both put pressure on white's center.
This is also part of the rationale that underlies the Breyer defense (9. ... Nb8 instead of 9. ... Na5). It gets out of the way of the c7-Pawn, opens a nice diagonal for the c8-Bishop on b7, and the Knight itself redeploys toward d7, guarding e5.