In the Ruy Lopez/Morphy Defense/Exchange Variation, after 5. Nxe5 the position looks like this:
After doing a little bit of research, I found that the most common response for black is 5. ...Qd4. I thought that the best response would be Qg5, but I can only find one game where that was actually played. Does anyone know why Qg5 would be inferior to Qd4?
Originally posted by stan3221Because that would let white open the g-file with tempo, true, white can't castle king side, but it wouldn't be smart for black to either..it's just easier for black to equalize with 5..Qd4
In the Ruy Lopez/Morphy Defense/Exchange Variation, after 5. Nxe5 the position looks like this:
[fen]r1bqkbnr/1pp2ppp/p1p5/4N3/4P3/8/PPPP1PPP/RNBQK2R[/fen]
After doing a little bit of research, I found that the most common response for black is 5. ...Qd4. I thought that the best response would be Qg5, but I can only find one game where that was actually played. Does anyone know why Qg5 would be inferior to Qd4?
Originally posted by stan3221central pawns are superior to wing pawns in the middlegame
In the Ruy Lopez/Morphy Defense/Exchange Variation, after 5. Nxe5 the position looks like this:
[fen]r1bqkbnr/1pp2ppp/p1p5/4N3/4P3/8/PPPP1PPP/RNBQK2R[/fen]
After doing a little bit of research, I found that the most common response for black is 5. ...Qd4. I thought that the best response would be Qg5, but I can only find one game where that was actually played. Does anyone know why Qg5 would be inferior to Qd4?
after 6. Nf3 Qxg2 7. Rg1 Qh3 8. Rg3 the queen finds itself being chased around while white develops
After Qd4 and Qxe4, black has equality anyways (the point of the exchange on c6 is to created doubled a winning king and pawn endgame for white. To do this, he has to trade his d-pawn for the black e-pawn. Trading off both e-pawns completely kills the point of the variation.)
It seems like the position does have its strengths and weaknesses. I kinda like the pawn majority on the queenside for black since we know that white is most likely going to be castling queenside. The open g-file doesn't seem like too much of a problem if black ends up fianchettoing his kingside bishop. But white's central pawns are good and so is his development.
I found two games (both won by Black), but the players were “no names.” I’d stick with 5…Qd4 which gives a very high win percentage for Black and it’s the move of choice by strong players. Here’s an old game by Weyerstrass.
NN - Weyerstrass
Woerden-Laren Jr 1970
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.Nxe5 Qd4 6.Qh5 g6 7.c3 Qxe4+ 8.Qe2 Qxe2+ 9.Kxe2 f6 10.Nf3 Bg4 11.h3 Bxf3+ 12.gxf3 0–0–0 13.Kd1 Bc5 14.d4 Ne7 15.Bd2 Bb6 16.Re1 Nf5 17.Re6 Rhf8 18.Be3 c5 19.Nd2 cxd4 20.cxd4 Bxd4 21.Bxd4 Nxd4 22.Re4 Nxf3 23.Re2 Rxd2+ 24.Rxd2 Nxd2 25.Kxd2 Rd8+ 26.Kc3 b6 27.a4 Rd5 28.Kc4 Rd2 29.b4 Rxf2 30.b5 axb5+ 31.Kxb5 Rf5+ 32.Kc6 Rc5# 0–1