Quote:Hi Chessteachers!
I know you are many on this forum , and maybe some of you can help me
With Black , most players , against Ruy Lopez , choose the closed defense , and I can't understand why
When I look at the standard position , after 9 h3 ,
I can't see any trmp for Black :
- White rule the center
-They have more space , and Black expansion at queenside only gives targets to White
-White is no more behind in development
Then , I ask the question : What is left to Black?
Thanks in advance
Claude Le Page
Not a teacher, but some points.
-Black can challenge the center in many ways, the most ancient one being with c5 as in the Tsjigorin. Another is to put pressure on e4 so as not to allow the manoeuvre Nbd2-f1-g3. This is what happens in the Zaitsev.
-I dont think white has that much more space. If you check some Tsjigorin main lines you can see some very good examples of black taking over the queen side (eg by some combination of Na5, c5, Nc4) while white hasnt got much to put against it.
-Black certainly isnt the one with a development lag. Just check the Breyer where black thinks he has enough time to reroute his knight via b8 to d7. For white it is usually the problem of what to do with the bishop on c1. Very often that bishop just stays there the whole game.
I do think white has the initiative though, which is why I play it with white. However I would return to 1 .. e5 in a minute if my opponent is guaranteed to play the Ruy and not some boring 4-knights or Vienna.