Up next to close the 7th. round, board 3: Ramirez vs. Vela

The date will be Monday, October the 3rd, 2011.
In one week the fight for first place will take place at El Mambi's home.

As we all know and the table of positions also shows, all three of the contenders are neck and neck, battling it out, trying to receive the honors of  being called 'The champion' in 2011.

With this game we will be closing the seventh round. That's the next to last out of the eight rounds planned to decide over the chessboard who deserves to reign supreme as the best among equals, as Botvinnik would said.

Jose will command the white army in his last chance to play the French defense against me.
Whether he'll choose so or not, I have no idea, but even if he goes for his beloved "matadora" (1.c4) or something different, I'm about to find that out very soon... 

I, of course, will try to be prepared for anything sensible.

My leadership is made out of a tiny and very fragile half a point over Ramirez and Jauregui, so I'll start defending it, and will also try to find active possibilities for my black pieces.

A victory for me at this point would mean a comfortable lead with just one more round to go (3 games left total, but two per player)

A draw would still keep my minimum advantage over Jose and a full point over Juan Pablo.

A loss would mean a switch out of places at the top between El mambi and I.

Once more, I am coming out to fight very, very hard 'till the end.

I am not looking forward to a draw without a great battle before any result.
If Jose decides to risk too much, then I will try to capitalize on that by stealing the always important initiative that the white pieces enjoy at the beginning of the game. Whatever happens I can assure everyone that I am ready to sweat again.

I can already tell that Jose is preparing very deeply for this specific battle, since he knows perfectly well how important a victory is at exactly this point in the Match. Like I said at the beginning, this is his last white against me, so he must take advantage of that and play to the best of his abilities, and he'll do just that, no doubt...

On the little details I am almost ready. A few of the last nuts and screws on my different opening choices have to be tighten up, oiled up, studied and perfected as much as possible, but the most important things like tactics, fighting spirit, psychology, and my great Will to win are already polished and ready to be used against my great friend and tough adversary.

There's only 4 games left in the Match, and I know this one coming up will add to a long list of chess battles between Ramirez and I. Let's have one more great fight, Jose!

Let's do this!!
Let's fight!!