Fast and Furious: Neo-Archangelsk with 7.a4 Rb8 8.Nxe5

by Robert Ris
4/23/2020 – Robert Ris takes a look at the Neo-Archangelsk, a sharp line of the Ruy Lopez that has recently been tried by Fabiano Caruana and Magnus Carlsen. "Fast and Furious" is available from 17:00 UTC (19:00 CEST / 15:00 EDT) on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.
Pattern recognition is an important tool in modern chess, as it helps you to understand better the characteristics of a position. Particularly when you have been confronted with a surprise opening system played by your opponent, it helps when you can just

The Neo-Archangelsk with 7.a4 Rb8 8.Nxe5

The Neo-Archangelsk (6...Bc5) has been considered as one of the most ambitious ways for Black to meet the Ruy Lopez. Since the ensuing lines are incredibly sharp and deeply analysed, you either love or hate this opening!

In the first leg of the Candidates event Fabiano Caruana employed this variation twice and at the Magnus Invitational, the World Champion himself has also played it twice so far.

In this part of the Fast & Furious show we'll go back to the variations with Nxe5, which was in the 90s considered to be the critical challenge of Black's active development of his dark-squared bishop and is currently in the centre of attention again!

As a warming-up exercise, a game I played myself ten years ago. Black to play! Can you work out the tactical complications?

 

Move the pieces on the live diagram – solution below!

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Robert is an International Master who mostly spends his time training and coaching talented youngsters. On the PlayChess server The Fast and the Furious is a popular show where he explains sharp opening lines for a wider audience. He is also a well-known ChessBase author who produced numerous DVDs and regularly contributes to ChessBase Magazine as well. Since 2015 he is the organizer of the Dutch Rapid Championships in his home town Amstelveen. He has started a YouTube channel with chess analysis as well.

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