Hey! Its another annotation with the Raabemaster! This one focuses on opening principles, as the title suggests, but also expands on the importance of pawns. In the opening of a chess game, it is important to both achieve the opening principles while also preventing your opponent from using them as well. In this game it lead to trade offs of sorts as we both fought for different advantages both in the opening and concerning tempo. Finally, I ask anyone who who has questions, comments, or corrections to message me with them so I can make this annotation as helpful as possible. So sit forward, scowl at the screen, and prepare to criticize!

I heart the Ruy Lopez! It is both aggressive and stable which suits my style.

!? Maybe 4...bxc6 is better, but it is fine.

?! This move is not bad, but falls short to the superior 6.0-0. Then if 6...Nxe4? 7.Qe2! (7.Re1?? Bxf2+! wins the rook with the bishop.) Here, all tries to defend the knight (7...Nf6?? Nxf3+!! and a discovered check takes the queen) suffer defeat: 7...Bf5? 8.d3! 7...f5? 8.Qh4+ g6 9.Nxg6! (the pawn on h7 is pinned with the threat of Qxh8!) 9...Nf6 10.Re1+ Be7 11.Nxe7+! Nxh5 12.Nxc6+ and white is looking very good and should be 2 pawns up.

!? At first I thought that black had blundered and said "What 1400+ player blunders a bishop like that?" But then I looked further

!

? Here is Black's finale to the clever exchanges that started with 6...Bxf2, (it can be argued that it started with 4...dxc6). But that's all it really is, a couple exchanges. Black has no compensation for the doubled up pawns on the c-file, lack of center control, and misplaced queen except for maybe that white can't castle. While the inability to castle is annoying for white, it is hardly critical. So all in all, black has traded center control and tempo, (the queen will become a target as white's pawns march up the center of the board, thus the queen becomes more of a liability than an asset) all for making White's king a little more vulnerable. That is why I consider this a blunder.

! White's pawns threaten the black queen while increasing white's central advantage. Go tempo!

? Only allows white to advance the e-pawn with tempo. Better is 9...Qe7

! A strong central pawn structure for white that will restrict black's movements. But white's king is still in the center and vulnerable, thus giving black an angle to work at to try to get an advantage over white.