King's Tournament: Schliemann!

This looked like a species of suicide: bringing out the Schliemann against Carlsen.  The Schliemann is theoretically dubious at best, and if you're going to mix it up, do you really want it to be against Carlsen?  Worked like a charm.  Carlsen played 4.Nc3, heading for the attendant complications, but Nisipeanu was obviously well prepared.  Carlsen can be forgiven for not leaning forward in anticipation of 3...f5.  Nisipeanu has played into a Ruy all of seven times, four of them in classical mainlines and three Berlins.  He's a Sicilian player.  Despite the early theoretical advantage enjoyed by White, the game is played well on both sides and goes nowhere particularly interesting.  The theory is worth some review if your're a Ruy player.

Sveshnikov 101: 9.Nd5...11.c4

Radjabov doesn't often get pushed off the board as in the game below.  The first move to pay attention to is 11.c4.  The notion is to secure the d5 square--the oft-stated drawback is that White does so while lagging in development.  This line deserves exploration.  Much more often played--about 10 times more often--is 11.c3.