I'd always been under the impression that the Open Spanish was a good way for Black to imbalance the play and go for a win. However, now that I'm actually sitting down to look at some theory from the ...

At lower levels of play, the otherwise attractive Open Defence to the Spanish is often met by 6 Re1 instead of 6 d4, and after 6..Nc5 Black is OK if he know what he is doing, but the play can become v...

It seems to me that the open ruy is never played at the high levels anymore. Maybe its because of the 9. Nbd2 line?

Reading through Grandmaster Secrets: Openings  by Andy Soltis (2002), he recommends both the Riga and Dilworth variations for black saying they can be learned over a long weekend.
How difficult ...

I mean, how often is the Open Variation played these days?

I'm asking because in looking over Andrew Greet's book on the Worrall System for the Spanish he recommends using the move order 5...

2 Recent Riga Variation games.  First game is not critical, but may be interesting because Black's position is ugly looking and looks impossible to hold, but a nice resource appears!
The second ...

There doesn't seem to be much of this lately. There was Flear's book in 2000 and I've heard about Krasenkow's book published mid '90s...but that's all. Anything more recent that I've missed?

Okay I thought in the line 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. 0-0 Nxe4 6. d4 b5 7. Bb3 d5 8. dxe5 Be6 9. Nbd2 Nc5 10. c3 Nxb3 was suppossed to a huge mistake. Yet it was played in Corus B Gro...

Hi all,
I am taking up the Open Spanish.  Yes I have read what seems to be all the posts on the open.  I am confused about the opening.  most other openings I get but Flear's book confuses me.  P...

I'd like to hear some discussion of white's possible deviations when black attempts to reach the Open spanish using the Berlin move order.  An expert or class A player will only get an Open Spanish ab...