"Against 9. c3, how is 9...Bc5 doing? I quite like the silly double capture on f2 line. Has White proved anything in this line,"

After 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Nxe4 6. d4 b5 7. Bb3 d5 8. dxe5 Be6 9. c3 Bc5 10. Nbd2 O-O 11. Bc2 Nf2 12. Rf2 f6, 13. ef6 was the main move by far. An old comment about 13. Nf1 from ChessPub reads "A very rare option, which I always considered to be wrong as it allows Black to create a strong pawn centre." However, there has been a re-appraisal of 13. Nf1 and it was the more popular move in 2024.

TonyRo wrote on 10/02/09 at 15:00:48:

That may be true, but sometimes an old game or line is slighted simply because another line became prominent. I think that in the case of the Open Ruy, new books complement old books rather than replacing them.

Mikhalevski's book recommended 11...Bf5, but I don't think it caught on. He analzyed the game Dominguez - Caruana, 2021, for ChessPublishing.

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Nxe4 6. d4 b5 7. Bb3 d5 8. dxe5 Be6 9. c3 Bc5 10. Nbd2 O-O 11. Bc2 Bf5 12. Nb3 Bg6 13. Nfd4 Bd4 14. Nd4 Nd4 15. cd4 c5

The game continued with 16f3. Mikhalevski also looks at 16f4.

While the Dillworth is the main line, I think 11...Bf5 remains interesting and playable.

TonyRo wrote on 10/02/09 at 15:00:48:


I have Krasenkov's book and I think it's pretty good.  It gives useful info and insights.  It's out of date, but so is Flear's.

The Dilworth is O.K. but you should not expect to achieve an attacking game against a good player using it.   It's just a way of entering a rather definite ending, which you'd better know how to play.

If you want to play the Open Ruy Lopez I think you have to become a ChessPublishing.com 1 e4 e5 subscriber.  Mikhalevski plays it himself and the coverage of it here is outstanding.

Hello all, 

I've recently been test driving 1...e5 in some blitz games and some informal correspondence games, and I was just curious about some theoretical questions. Most books on the Open are probably a little bit dated, and so I figured I might get some more informative responses from people who keep their theory up to date. After 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

1. In the 9. Nbd2 Nc5 10. c3 d4 11. Bxe6 Nxe6 12. cxd4 Ncxd4 13. a4 line, what do you guys think the healthiest move is? I think I read in my latest Yearbook a while back that their was a survey on 13...Bb4, but I also recall analyzing Topalov - Anand, Dos Hermanas 1996 when Black played 13...Bc5 and the game continued 14. Ne4 0-0 15. Nxc5 Nxf3+ 16. Qxf3 Nxc5 17. axb5 axb5 18. Bg5 Rxa1 19. Bxd8 Rxf1+ 20. Kxf1 Rxd8 21. g3 Ne6 with a fortress (hopefully). Given all that, 13...Be7 is the most played in my database, with around 125 games, but I haven't really looked into that move all that much yet. 

2. Against 9. c3, how is 9...Bc5 doing? I quite like the silly double capture on f2 line. Has White proved anything in this line, and are there better ways to play for White after 9. c3 Bc5? 

3. I have Flear's book on the Open, but is it worth picking up the older Krasenkow book? Is there any other worthwhile material on this line anywhere?

Thanks!