@RoleyPoley: I think that the Marshall is especially nice for educating players. It teaches a lot about getting the initiative, developing an attack, sacrifices, opening up the second front, and so on.. While it is true that there is a mass of theory behind it, I would say that at a lower level most players are not familiar with that. You do not have to memorize everything, but you should be familiar with some key lines and the motifs and reasoning behind these moves.

Bologan kind of opened my eyes when saying that White players avoid the Spanish Mainline not for the Zaitsev or the Chigorin, but because of the Marshall! It is one of the toughest nuts to crack out there. And if someone at your level knows about this and tries to avoid the Marshall, you can fight in a typical Spanish middlegame on equal grounds! I think it is a nice weapon for everybody.

Cannot say this for the breyer, though, because it is positionally much more complex. And you should try not to get mated

While it seems they abandoned their experiment with squares around a new move (and a circle for several alternatives) like they did in BBW in the Open Games, on page 317 in the last variation there is a square! It's the first I noticed, so either this is the only novelty I've seen so far or it is an editorial slip.

That is really weird. I have checked my copy and haven´t found any missing pages.

My copy of Bologan's Ruy lopez has missing pages in it.

Pages 209, 212, 213, 216, 217, 220, 221 and 224 are completely blank and there are no page numbers on those pages either.

I now have the inconvenience of returning the book (and, of course I have thrown the original packaging away) to the seller (Amazon Uk) in order to get a refund.

I have emailed the publisher (NIC) to ask whether this is a general fault in all copies of Bologan's book or whether it is just a fault in my copy.

@Fllg: I would really like to know where you found these mistakes, as after your comment I checked my copy a bit and could not find any of those in the first chapter. The only slight mistake I noticed so far is on page 64, in the comments to 9. ... Re8 where at the end Bologan states "returning the pawn and retaining the initiative." It would be more appropriate to "regain" the pawn.

Anyways, I am impressed by this book and I think it is worth it's money. There is plenty of material for any Ruy Lopez connoisseur that is maybe not that much explored. For example, against the Exchange variation, he gives 5. ... Ne7 and 5. ... Be7, which I had not expected.

I will check more carefully through the Marshall lines once I have time to do that, but I would like to adress one thing that some people moaned about (see for example Reply #15): The book rightly says "how to play for a win" and I think Bologan does his best to offer enough material so that every player can chose what he wants to play. It may be true that there are some lines, especially in the Marshall, which result in equal endings. But that is the character of the opening. You can't blame 1. ... e5 that it doesn't always retain winning chances if White plays the best moves! But I came across an interesting thought while reading this comment. Some players fear the Marshall attack, most famously Kasparov. So, by reading this book and remembering how to draw those endgames is in some kind also preparing to play for a win because your opponent might play some Anti-Marshall system because he is not satisfied with such a draw! And if you really play against a lower rated player that would be loving to draw against you, you simply play the Breyer or something else.
I hope that everyone will get my point.

Anyway, I will come back and hopefully have some thing to say about the analysis! What I noticed though, is that sometimes a line stops with a comment like "with the idea of a6-a5" For me that is not a concern, as I can not demand from Bologan that he stops every line with a plan for Black, especially in the side lines, but I could imagine that some players might find that unhelpful.

What I read recently was some comment by a strong GM and apparently a friend of Bologan who said that "he overestimated his own chances 20 years ago, like he does today often, too" along those lines for sure. I hope that this does not influence his writing

Any thoughts?

How does the game Almasi-Sammalvuo fit in from ETCC, Iceland?
Sorry, my copy not here yet, and it is also not yet released on Forward Chess. Waiting...!

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BobbyDigital80 wrote on 11/15/15 at 22:20:55:


A quick look at this position in my database, and I see no wins for White, 6 draws, and one win for Black. That's an excellent performance in my mind!

I received my copy last week, spend the weekend on it, mostly on part 1 with an early d3 which I meet quite often in my club. Have not looked so much on the Marshall, looker a bit on the Breyer, it looks interesting, I usually plays Chigorin, but I will probably shift to the Breyer.

The book looks fantastic, it must be "book of the year" candidate. I also have Bologans book on the non Ruy Lopez and that is also fantastic.

Much recommended. Best opening books ever!