I am of the opinion that if Gustafsson wrote a book on 1. e4 e5 as a complete Black repertoire in paper form, it would be a massive best seller. Especially paired with a publishing house like Quality Chess or Chess Stars.

BobbyDigital80 wrote on 12/15/19 at 19:36:19:

There is no way that I am aware of to download a course as a PGN. The best substitute I can think of is to view a variation and just copy-paste the text, but this will only give you one variation at a time.

Anyone interested in this new course should be aware that the (free) Short and Sweet version has now been released, which provides a decent guide to the lines he is recommending. One highlight I will mention is his recommendation of the line 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 d5 5. exd5 Na5 6. Bb5+ c6 7. dxc6 bxc6 8. Qf3 h6 9. Ne4 cxb5!? (I believe this may even be a novelty) intending 10. Nxf6+ gxf6 11. Qxa8 Qd7.
In general my impression is that Gustafsson's recommendations aim to new ideas as early as possible, with most of the new ideas coming from LC0. Consider for example the following quote from his text accompanying the aforementioned 15... Ra7 in the Marshall: "There is nothing wrong with the old main lines starting with 15... Bg4, but they do require Black to learn quite some theory in order to hold. Let's get our surprise in first!" Of course the downside of choosing innovation over the tried and tested is that you do take greater risk of having your analysis overturned by later developments, but with computers as good as they are now that risk is lower than ever before. Furthermore, having these lines exposed to the light of day in such a high-profile course will help ensure that they get the further practical and theoretical testing that one might hope for.
On a side note, is it time to start a new thread for this course? The original thread was about the old Chessbase DVD, and the new course covers a lot more than just the Marshall.

TopNotch wrote on 12/13/19 at 18:19:41:


The Breyer would probably be my first choice since there is no real well-known forced draw, at least to my knowledge.

Another choice would, very ironically, be Berlin. The endgame is actually very good for Black players to try to win this endgame. The 4. d3 line and the other line with the rook on e1 are not as dry as people think it is.

A third choice is the Smyslow. Quite combative and not well-analysed. Especially the KID-style positions that can arrive from this variation.

IsaVulpes wrote on 12/12/19 at 23:15:02:


He gives 8.a4 Bb7? After 9.d3 doesn't that just transpose to a 7.d3 Archangel (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 b5 6.Bb3 Bb7 7.d3), making the bishop on b7 look "silly"?

LordChaos21 wrote on 12/13/19 at 15:13:23:

I think it's perhaps the case that people are not so much scared off from playing lines such as the Marshall, as disincentivised from learning them in the first place. This is because you're faced with having to spend a lot of time memorising all the sharp and theory-heavy main lines, while knowing that – at club level at least – you're only very rarely going to have a chance to play them, because, as you say, players of White tend to avoid them.

I did consider learning the Marshall a while ago, but was put off by my experience with the Sveshnikov Sicilian a number of years back. During the course of around twelve months of playing  the opening – or trying to – against 2000-2200ish Elo players, I didn't get the mainline Sveshnikov on the board even once, instead finding myself confronted with various anti-Sicilians and early deviations before the mainline was reached. This pretty much echoes the experience you describe with the Marshall. So there's a practical case to be made for not bothering with all the work involved in learning such sharp theoretical lines, and instead concentrating your efforts on studying a line that you're more likely to get on the board.

A lot of the forcing Marshall accepted lines and some of the Anti-Marshall lines had put me off this system for a long time, but after years of experimenting with various defenses to the Ruy Lopez I am starting to warm to the Marshall a bit. The reason for this change of heart is partly due to some of the exciting discoveries found for Black in the Anti-Marshall lines, namely that d5!? is still viable against many of them, in particular the popular 8.a4.

As an aside for those shopping around for another reliable counter to the Spanish torture, I think the Steintz Deferred is an underrated and less theory heavy option.

IsaVulpes wrote on 12/12/19 at 23:15:02:

I can't give a reason. That's just the way it is.