Question about the Ruy

here is a very famous and well trodden cattle path in the Ruy Lopez closed variation,
whites plans are well understood, the knight will come to f1, e3 and either d5 or f5
whereupon white shall be able to expand his kingside attack. Black has at his
disposal no less than half a dozen or so plans of his own, including,

a)...Bd7, a flexible choice, not revealing his intentions
b) ...Nc6 trying to put pressure on the centre
c) ...Bb7 an aggressive choice
d) ...Nd7 .. trying to transfer the knight to the queenside
e) ...Re8 played in conjunction with Bf8 trying to reduce tension in the centre
f) ...Rd8 introduced by Keres, preparing a pawn break in the centre
g) ...cxd4 - trying to obtain play along the open c file

last move was Nbd2

how would you evaluate the position and which move would you pick and why?

Originally posted by robbie carrobie
here is a very famous and well trodden cattle path in the Ruy Lopez closed variation,
whites plans are well understood, the knight will come to f1, e3 and either d5 or f5
whereupon white shall be able to expand his kingside attack. Black has at his
disposal no less than half a dozen or so plans of his own, including,

a)...Bd7, a flexible ch ...[text shortened]... last move was Nbd2

how would you evaluate the position and which move would you pick and why?

For what it's worth the database at chesslive gives the number of games for each continuation -

cxd4 - 6384 (58% )
Nc6 - 2088 (59% )
Bd7 - 2025 (61% )
Re8 - 603 (62% )
Bb7 - 554 (63% )
Rd8 - 517 (57% )
Be6 - 47 (47% )

Number in brackets is the percentage of the games from that move won by white.

Personally i'd play cxd4 and open it up.

Originally posted by Proper Knob
For what it's worth the database at chesslive gives the number of games for each continuation -

cxd4 - 6384 (58% )
Nc6 - 2088 (59% )
Bd7 - 2025 (61% )
Re8 - 603 (62% )
Bb7 - 554 (63% )
Rd8 - 517 (57% )
Be6 - 47 (47% )

Number in brackets is the percentage of the games from that move won by white.

Personally i'd play cxd4 and open it up.

ok, very good PK, your intention is to keep white busy with play down the open c file,
have you considered how to thwart whites plans of putting a knight on either d5 or f5
and expanding his attack against your king?