Also got Lane's book now, looks decent.

But... I already saw a lot of important sidelines arent covered. Eg you will look in vain for Ne4 iso Nf5 in the Berlin and the main line in the Nge7 of the classical is put away as a sideline with a suboptimal choice by black. Also his 4 d3 suggestion in the Berlin is imo not really covered well. A whole game is dedicated to 4 .. Ne7 (like anyone would play that), while Bc5 is only covered in the sidelines with the line from "starting out" not included. Incidentally 4 .. a6 is not covered at all, which means that after 5 Ba4 (or Bxc6) you're out of book (none of the 3 .. a6 lines feature d3).

The Lopez can be learnt in stages, playing d3 against some lines first (even 5. d3 in main line and maybe even d3 vs the Berlin) to get a repetoire up and running and then adding in sharper main line stuff to get d4 in one go as you progress. I wish I'd known this when I was first deciding on what to play against 1. ...e5!

I also like the idea of 8. d4 as an Anti-Marshall line since Black pretty much has to play 8. ...d6 and then 9. c3 Bg4 leads to a Closed Lopez position with less theory.

I'm working through the Gary Lane book and it has some good ideas for lines to avoid booked up Black players ready to reel out their favourite lines.

RotGut wrote on 02/12/06 at 02:53:02:


i wouldn't recommend the duras if you already played the scotch or italian or something, but it makes a big difference. its just my philosophy that when taking on new material, its beneficial to concentrate on getting maximum result for your time. its really just a matter of statistics.

when playing for one of the many main lines of the ruy against e5, the majority of your games will be diverted before that point, and you will be facing a bird, a shleimann, a petrov, a philidor, or one of a few other things. the ruy lines you want might be the most common route, but the others combined will be the majority. however, even though there are all these numerous other routes, learning every single one of them is less time consuming than learning the ruy. so, for best results while you are still in the learning process, its better to knock out the deviations first , at least in my opinion anyway. then, once you feel comfortable playing against all the other stuff, you can really focus on the ruy proper.

I am venturing on the same journey. After 25 years playing chess, last year I decided to learn the Ruy. Too late you might say? No! I plan to be playing chess for at least another 25 years, so I might have learnt it by then 

My starting point was Emms' "Easy Guide to the Ruy Lopez". This is a misleading title since it offers an uncompromising Mainline repetoire against all defences, offering a choice against some lines. Written in 1999, the lines still stand up well, however some latest Black tries e.g. 9. ...Bd7 in the Berlin defence endgame aren't there.

I've also got Khalifman's "Opening for White According to Anand" as a reference source since it is so detailed and fills in the missing lines in Emms book.

The best book on the Ruy IMO is "Mastering the Spanish with the Read and Play Method" by King and Ponzetto. It's a pure themes/strategies/ideas book. I wish more books like this were around.

I also have Gary Lane's book, which is next on my readng list.


As for the Petroff, I've used 5. c4 as suggested in Kaufman's "Chess Advantage in Black and White". An IM friend of mine suggested 5. Nc3 as an easy way to play for White if you don't want to learn lots of Theory. If you want to go main line though, there is the Khalifman books plus Kotronias's beating the Petroff, the latter being good in ideas/strategy.

Good luck on your journey. You are following the path of many great chess players, and many are travelling with you now.

I would recommend to answer one question first: what to do against the Petrov?

Well I'M returning to 1e4 & that means time to brush up on the Ruy. I just picked up a copy of Lane's new book. I also managed to find an ole copy of Talburt's book. Both seem basic in their approach and stress ideas rather than theory. This is fine since I'M new to the Ruy. How do the above mentioned books hold up guys? ANy recomendations you can make to this newbie to the Ruy would be great? Any books or software that may proove helpful?