classical center - always losing with it

i always struggle and have a hard time playing with the classical center from ruy lopez and parrying the opponents counter attack.

in ruy lopez white only has d and e file pawn on the center after the pawn exchange in the center, and 99% of the times the pawns in the center are only supported by the piece. this fact makes me feel the center is extremely unstable and vulnerable from the attack from the black pieces and pawn-breaks. the way it feels playing with it sort of resembles with the grunfeld exchange variation.

most people in the internet says "just maintain the structure and youll be better, youre the one who has the strong center" but i just cant believe that it is a good idea while black has countless option to counter white.

here are some games that i lost with ruy lopez:



am i misconceptioning things about classical center? what can i be more conscious about this structure to improve my play?

@Chambaru its because your overly focusing on the opening. At your level both players are usually out of memorized moves in the first 5 moves. You should Focus on the middle game looking for tactics and not blundering and work on your endgame skills that will bring you up your rating considerably

@griffindabeast

im referring to the pawn structure that i get from the opening, so im pretty sure the topic would be in the realm of the middlegame. it doesnt matter whether if its italian or ruy lopez if im getting the classical center.

@Chambaru oh sorry i misunderstood you. I would just work on seeing what weakness you have and what weaknesses your opponent has while looking for tactical tricks. I feel like that alone will bring you up to the 2300+ level. Every game I play I either win or lose 60% of the time to blundering a peace due to a tactical trick and the other 40% of the time is mostly endgame or sometimes due to poor opening moves.

Because chess is 99% tactics. Choosing the right strategy is 1% - practically nothing if you lose the house in every game.

In the first example, you overprotected e-pawn and neglected d-pawn, but ultimately lost to a typical f2/f7 attack, mainly because you allowed a Bishop to be comfortably seated on h4.

In the second, again is a typical "remove the defender" attack, unrelated to center pawns.

In both cases, I think your pieces are rather passive (focused on protecting your e and d pawns?) and have no attacking chances (*). If you feel I'm right, maybe you overestimate the center pawn importance and thought you will win just by having it. A strong center pawn is an asset, but not so much that everything else can be ignored.

(*) Take a look at moves 12 and 16 in the second game:
12.Bc1 basically undevelops the Bishop, instead of relocating it in a good place like e3, and blocks the a-Rook.
16.Nd1 obstructs the back rank with no clear purpose.

After 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 Nf6, I believe that 4 O-O is the preferred move, but 4 d3 is sometimes suggested as a way to avoid some complications. As far as I can tell, the machine thinks that AdmireVega was doing fine against KimRobert until the choice of 16 Nxd4 (instead of 16 cxd4) reducing AdmireVega's advantage. Not sure why. Apparently, 18 Bd2 (instead of 18 f4) was another advantage-reducing decision. Nf4 looks like it would have been better than 21 Qd1 or 22 Nc3. 23 Qe2 took away AdmireVega's ability to reply to 23...d5 with 24 exd5 or 24 e5. It also created a potential d4-vulnerability, down the road. Still, things were apparently approximately level until the decision to go for 27 Qg4.

@kindaspongey said in #7:
> After 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 Nf6, I believe that 4 O-O is the preferred move, but 4 d3 is sometimes suggested as a way to avoid some complications.

If White plays 4 0-0, best moves for both sides look very weird for White:

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. O-O Nxe4 5. Re1 Nd6 6. Nxe5 Be7 7. Bf1 Nf5 8. Nf3

Maybe 4 d3 is not perfect but it is easier to understand

@OctoPinky said in #8:
> ... If White plays 4 0-0, best moves for both sides look very weird for White:
> 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. O-O Nxe4 5. Re1 Nd6 6. Nxe5 Be7 7. Bf1 Nf5 8. Nf3
> Maybe 4 d3 is not perfect but it is easier to understand
As I understand it, after 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 Nf6 4 O-O Nxe4, 5 d4 is the preferred move, but I suppose that the main point is that it is indeed very understandable if someone wants to choose 4 d3 instead of 4 O-O.

The two games are not very ruy lopez ish . You should perharps look up a few gm games in ruy lopez to get a feel for it or/and explore lichess database