Opening Lessons From Mallorca VIII

IN round eight of the Colonia de Sant Jordi U2400 I had black against a player rated 1774.
The full game can be seen at M8 but here I want to concentrate on the opening, which I generally take as lasting until one player has connected rooks.

Spanish Berlin

The game began 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.0-0 Nxe4 5.d4, and at this point, rather than head for a Berlin Wall with 5...Nd6, I played 5...a6!?

How should White respond?

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Commonest in ChessBase's 2022 Mega database is 6.Ba4, which is a transposition to the Open Variation of the Spanish but one in which Black has avoided the Exchange Variation.

However White can play a sort of exchange variation with 6.Bxc6, after which 6...bxc6?! is inferior to 6...dxc6, according to Stockfish15 and Komodo13.02.

How should White proceed?

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The game saw 7.Nxe5!?, which has been tried by several players rated over 2400 but is usually considered inferior to 7.Re1 and 7.Qe2.

After 7.Re1 the mainline in Mega22 runs 7...Nf6 8.Nxe5 with a slight edge for White, according to the engines. On the other hand, after 7.Qe2 the mainline in Mega22 runs 7...Bf5 8.dxe5, when the engines reckon Black is at least equal.

In the game I met Nxe5 with 7...Be7, and after 8.Re1 Nd6 the mainline in Mega22, albeit from a small samples, runs 9.Bg5 Be6 10.Bxe7 Qxe7, which dates back to at least 1889 and seems to present Black with few problems.

My opponent preferred what may be a novelty, 9.Nd2!? After the further moves 9...0-0 10.c3!? (the engines like this) the game had transposed to a known game which continued, as did my game, 10...Be6 11.Ndf3.

Here a 2065 played 11...Nc4 but I preferred 11...Bd5, and after 12.Bf4 Re8 13.Rc1?! I evicted the e5 knight by playing 13...f6!?, after which the engines reckon Black is slightly better.

White's 13th move set a small trap - 12...Bxa2?? 13.b3 - but otherwise seems somewhat irrelevant to the position.

The engines reckon an improvement is 13.Ng4, continuing 13...f6!? 14.Ne3, when 14...Bf7 15.Nd2!? Bf8!? 16.a4 Qd7 is equal, according to the engines, Black's bishop-pair being offset by White's space advantage in the centre and on the queenside.