I have played this line in lots of OTB games during the years, albeit I prefer move order 5. d4 ed 6. 0-0 for personal reasons. I don't think White gets an advantage but for some reasons my opponents often falls into traps in this line. For instance 5. d4 Nxe4!? 6. Qe2!? d5? drops a piece, several decent club players have committed this blunder against me.

Jormechea wrote on 07/28/09 at 15:14:31:


For use in OTB-chess definitely yes. It's theoretical status is equal, but it is quite easy for Black to go astray. A former clubmate of mine has played it for ten years or more, with great success. He never claimed a theoritical advantage though.
The main lines were 30 years ago (I don't think theory changes very quickly here):
7.e5 Ne4 etc. 9...d5 indeed, Marjanovic-Honfi, Subotica 1978.
7.Re1 0-0 (b5!?) 8.e5 Ne8 (Nd5) 9.Bf4 f6 Gaprindasjvili-Tarjan, Lone Pine 1977.

Recently I was going over The life and games of Mikhail Tal. I noticed a game in the Ruy Lopez which caught my eye. Usually I would check chesslive.de for a search of the games played in this line but for some reason right now it seems that the service in unavailable.

This is the line that caught my eye.

1. e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.d4!

The lines given in Tals book are intriguing with interesting attacking possibilities.

Tal references Shakhmaty v SSSR in which after 6...exd4 7.e5 Ne4 8. Nxd4 Nc5 9.Nf5 0-0 10.Qg4 g6 11.Bh6 Re8 12.Nc3 Nxa4 13.Nd5!

Here he says white obtains a most dangerous attack. He mentions that 11...d5 12.Nxe7 Qxe7 13.Bxf8 Kxf8! was only written about later.

The game he played in something similar was Tal-Straume Riga Championship 1953.

The game was interesting and fun to go over. As a young tactician myself I was inspired to do a DPA on fritz. Unfortunately my lap top processor is not as powerful as I would like it to be and its a rather slow process.

I realize that 56 years after a game was played means that there must be a significant change in the state of theory but at the same time I would like to incorporate 6.d4 into my repertoire. I used to play 6.d3 with a closed set up but would still get good attacking chances on the king side. This looks to be a lot more open and fun to play.

Has anyone had experience in this line? Or can any one supply me with games that I need to be aware of. I would also like to know the most common replies to 6.d4. I know it cant all be as simple as black has to take the pawn.

Is this worth looking at? I havent played the Ruy Lopez in a long time. I have been focusing on the quick attacks I get in the Bird. But this may be something to bring me back to 1.e4.  

I await your replys.

Thanks ahead of time.

Jormechea the BasqueKnight