Thanks guys for these excellent analyses. They do advance the opening theory of this line. Unfortunately not in the direction I'd like to see ...
Markovich I completey agree with your analysis - black is in (serious) trouble here. I suggest black should abstain for playing h6 altogheter since it's very weakening, and go 17. ... g6 straight away and after 18.f3 ef3: 19.Nf3: go 19. ... Bd5!? with the idea 20.Kg3 b5 21.Bc2 Re8 when it looks as if black is OK.
I still maintain the endgame is quite doable for black.
But then there is Aiorla's line - the brillant 17.Kg1! in Berger's line, where white
being a whole rook down just plays a quiet attacking move that brings black to the brink of disaster.
Black has no choice but to sac his queen for Rf1 (as per the CC game) after which material is about even but white wins the pawn on c6 and then another one, resulting in an endgame of Q vs two rooks where white is a pawn up and black's king is unsafe so black is really struggling.
Maybe black can just about hold on by the skin of his teeth by trying to get his rooks to the 7th and attacking g2 - but it looks like white is still better since he can create a passed pawn on the queenside and protect g2 with his queen.
When time allows I'l try to do a detailed analysis of this ending. In the meantime I have been looking at alternatives for black after 8.Bg5 but they're basically all good for white. 8. ...f6 9.Nd4 Bc5 10.Nc6 Bf2+ 11.Kf1 Qd6 looks interesting but is no good after 12.Nb4+! Kf8 13.Nd5 with Bf4 to follow and black can resign. 8. ... Qd6 has been whiped off the board with the Berliner correspondence game. And 8. ...f6 9.Nd4 Bc5 10.Nc6 Bf2+ 11.Kf1 Qd7 12.Nc3 0-0!? is interesting and very doable after 13.Nd5: Kh8 14.Re4 fg5: where black has excellent compensation for the piece due to the miserable position of white's king, but falls apart after the simple 13.Re4:! de4: 14.Qd7: Bd7: 15.Bf4 and white is clearly better.
So to me it looks like the riga is now very close to really being busted by Berger's 8.Bg5
- unless anyone can come up with a rescue operation??
One other thing before I forget - all these analyses end up in complex endings - so it really pays off in the riga (and in chess as a whole, really) to be an endgame expert! People spend too much time at openings (as we do in the pub) and do not take enough time to study the endgame what is not only very useful but also very enjoyable. People who say they never get to the endgame should have another look at their won games. Endgames are not boring at all. I'm just going through Nunn's understanding chess endgames, what is a recent and really excellent book.
Greetings to you all!