Both the d3 system and the Worral make it a lot easier on black to play their opening.  if white will never play d4 the real threats of the Spanish are gone and you give black a free hand to equalize or win the game.  Sticking with the main lines and the a4 anti Marshall you are walking on the shoulders of giants.  whereas in the d3 you are relying on your opponent to mess up to win.

Looking at the correspondence games is how I reached my conclusion in regards to the Marshall. Those games do enough to make one believe it equalizes by force, and there's nothing white can do about it.

Depressing, to say the least.

One of the Anti-Marshalls has to be better than that, or even the early d3 stuff.

Yes that's the difference - there's no doubt at all that the main line Marshall is very challenging indeed for both sides. Just look at all the concrete theory......

It'll be more a question of whether there's anything that's still genuinely usable against really well prepared opposition.

MNb wrote on 05/01/13 at 00:09:40:


Either the answer is yes or it's time to take up 1.d4.

I had chalked up the rising popularity of d3 entirely due to the Marshall.

I would imagine there are a number of the super-elite that would kill to find a convincing advantage against it, instead of being bombarded with pro-black novelties that also equalize.

It's a game of chess, and of course, you can win any given game of chess.  But it's not critical, sez I.  I didn't say you have to outrate your openent to win any given game of chess with this system; I said you had to outrate him to have an expectation of doing so (or more precisely, an expectation of a plus score).  So I am not impressed that someone has used this to defeat higher-rated players.  Lev Zilbermintz has used the BDG to defeat dozens of players that outrate him.

Either d3 in the Spanish (in normal settings such as after 3...Nf6) is equal, or 100 years of Spanish theory is down the toilet, dear chessfriends.  And I find the latter proposition much easier to reject.  I don't know why anyone would be impressed by Carlsen winning with this.  Of course, his play is generally quite impressive.  But he wins with a whole host of unchallenging systems, for crying out loud.  "White according to Carlson" could not be written, not with a straight face, anyway. 

Play the d3 Spanish by all means.  Play the Italian with d3, for all I care!  It's your game.  White is White in either case, and Black's game isn't a cakewalk.  But I assert that both challenge Black less than the main lines of the Spanish.

While I agree that Carlsen is lazy in opening prepeations, he plays several openings that are very practical.

In my experience with the white pieces you dont have to outrate them for this system to work, I have defeated players that outrate me siginfically.

Also, some of the older players at my local club does not consider Ruy Lopez with d3 to be a "true" Ruy Lopez, they think it is an other opening!