Ravi Tanaka: Level 19 Chess Rival (1598 ELO)

Knight tier · Junior Champion · plays the London System

How Ravi plays

Ravi won a national junior title in Spain at fifteen, then stepped away from serious chess for most of two decades. He still plays like the confident teenager he was. His answer to the London is active and principled, ...c5, ...Qb6 and ...c4, the setup his old coach drilled into him, and his piece play in the opening is crisp.

What has changed is his patience. Ravi remembers how to win from active positions but has less feel for slow, drawn-out games, and when things calm down he sometimes tries to force matters. He is comfortable when he holds the initiative and the queenside space that ...c4 brings. He is less comfortable when you build quietly in the centre and on the kingside and leave his queenside expansion with nowhere to go. At 1598 he plays with real skill, but he still drops the occasional piece in a tactical moment, especially late in long games.

At 1598 ELO, Ravi plays like a real club player at that rating: he sees simple threats but still leaves pieces hanging and misses tactics two or three moves deep. Check every capture he offers, and look for loose pieces after each of his moves. Most games at this level are decided by the first clean tactic, not by the opening.

London System: the line Ravi plays

Against the London System (1.d4, Nf3 and an early Bf4) Ravi answers with ...d5 and ...Nf6, then hits the centre with ...c5. The plan is the most direct one Black has: pressure d4, bring the queen to b6 to eye b2, and push ...c4 to gain space on the queenside once White's queen has gone to b3.

1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Bf4 c5 4.e3 Nc6 5.c3 Qb6 6.Qb3 c4

Learn it move by move: London System walkthrough

How to beat Ravi

  1. After ...c4 his queenside play usually continues with ...b5 and ...b4. Meet it with a well-timed a3 or a4 so his pawns stop short, and keep your d2 knight ready to reroute.
  2. Remember that ...c4 takes the d3 and b3 squares from your pieces. Plan for it early with the bishop on e2 and the queen on c2, so losing those squares costs you nothing.
  3. Make it a long game. His strength is the first twenty moves, so steer toward a closed queenside and slow manoeuvring, where impatience tends to push him into ...e5 or ...f6 too soon.
  4. If you play the London into the book, finish development calmly with Nbd2, Be2 and castling, then aim at the e5 square with Ne5 and f4. The ...c4 advance closes the queenside, so the game is decided in the centre and on the kingside.
  5. The book only answers 1.d4. Open 1.e4 or 1.c4 and he is on their own from move one.

What beating Ravi teaches you

Ravi teaches you to absorb an opponent's early initiative and win the long game that follows, when energy matters less than judgment.

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