It was a last round in the Thursdays tournament.
I played really bad in it, having 3/6 and a very low performance rating due to playing low rated opponents. So my goal was to win to at least improve my standing. I got a boy rated 1438, he played Ruy Lopez. I decided that it was a right moment to try Schliemann Defense.
I played about a dozen of blitz games with a score ~75%, read some chapters from the book and looked up the best lines in DB. Despite of my preparation the line 4. Bxc6 dxc6 5. Qe2 was not familiar to me. I remembered that Nf6 and Qe7 are often played, it helped.
Computer says he could play 8. Nh4 (+0.28), the best for White after 8… Be6 is not obvious 9. Nxe4 which would be followed by 9… Nxe4 10. Qxe4 Qf6 11. Nf3 Be7 with equality, but 9. d3 with a small 0.2 advantage. After queens exchange I felt pretty comfortable, knowing that two bishops in this, quite open position will compensate me the pawn minority on the kingside.
After 18 moves I had ~0.40 advantage and expected a long positional game. But suddenly he blundered a piece and the game was quickly over.
Rolling Pawns 
December 20, 2018 at 11:55 pm
8.d3 My first reaction was 8.Nh4, but after …Be6, 9.Nxe4 Nxe4, 10.Qxe4 Qd7 (I see from your notes that …Qf6 is the move, which is more active and controls more of the center, and hits b2), schematically, I like Black’s position for the middlegame, and White’s position for the endgame. So, if a …Bb4+ happens, White gladly trades it off with Bd2, BxB+ NxBd2, for example, but you also have …Bc5 possibility, ….0-0-0 possibility, as well as …Re8 there, although that would probably drop the h7 pawn. Interesting middlegame.
For White, I liked this idea of 8.Ng5 Qe7, 9.0-0 h6, 10.Nxe4 Nxe4, 11.Nxe4 Bxe4, 12.Re1 0-0-0, 13.QxB where Black basically has to avoid a queen trade to avoid the undesireable endgame, but it’s still a middlegame.
11.Nd4?! 11.QxQ BxQ, 12.Nd4 looks more accurate, but Black still has the bishop-pair, and nice development, whereas White has only the pawn-structure.
19…RxNe4! Nice! Flicking through this game, I didn’t even notice this, just hit forward to see where you would put your bishop. 😀
20…Ree8! I thought you could play 20…Bf4?? before noticing it would drop the rook to 21.fxRe4.
Nice game! He had some really interesting opening ideas, as I had not seen that line before with White either, but he wasn’t your match after the opening.
December 21, 2018 at 6:43 pm
Thank you!
In your line 8.Ng5 Qe7 9.0-0 Black rather than playing h6 which indeed is a bit better for White can play 9… 0-0-0 and after 10. Re1 Re8 11. Qd1 Qd7 can force White to play d3 and win a pawn.
You are right about 11. Nd4, but 11. Qxd4 Bxd4 12.Nd4 doesn’t work due to 12… Bxg2, computer recommends 12. 0-0, which still leaves White down a pawn. The best is 10. Be3, still after 10… Nxc3 11. bxc3 Qe4 I like Black’s position more.
Yes, he played pretty well in the opening, maybe he was prepared, because he didn’t look very surprised by it, but afterwards …