Straggler wrote on 10/28/18 at 10:21:52:
IsaVulpes wrote on 10/27/18 at 11:08:27:
people think the Ruy is just something for SuperGMs who know endless amounts of theory, and that it's entirely unplayable if you haven't learned every single moveorder nuance by heart.
Actually my coach (an IM) advised me not to play the Ruy Lopez because there are too many tricky things that Black can throw at you. Bologan requires as many DVDs to cover it for White as he does the Open Sicilian! I know you can cut down the theory with d3 stuff, but those positions are too subtle for the likes of me.
I don't know whether I'm typical, but my choice of openings is strongly influenced by the fact that most of my opponents don't play main lines. I would play 1.e4 e5 all the time if I knew that my opponents would play the Ruy Lopez, but most of them don't. I know that much of the other stuff is theoretically unchallenging, but you do need to know something about it, and I don't really want to study it because I don't find it very interesting.
Likewise I would play 1.d4 d5 all the time if I knew my opponent would play the Queen's Gambit; but these days most of them play the London system, which saps my will to live. It's got to the point where my top priority is to get an interesting position against the London, and finding a defence against 2.c4 is secondary!
So perhaps it's a vicious circle? Patzers play sidelines because their opponents play sidelines?
I'm sure Black can theoretically throw a lot of tricky things at you, but I feel in practice you don't really need to know them.. the nature of the position is such that you will be able to deal with most surprises (and even mainlines) OTB. A book author naturally can't cut corners without being accused of laziness later, but as an actual player.. what's the worst that's going to happen if your opponent plays the Breyer and you don't know theory, but are just throwing out random general moves?
The things that one has to know are the Jaenisch/Schliemann, the Marshall (here "knowing" means "know to avoid"), aaand.. that's mostly it? The rest for the most part I feel can be dealt with to sufficient extend by just going for natural looking moves and seeing where the game goes.
After all, least of all the same applies to Black as to you: He almost never faces the Ruy, so how much work will he have put into that repertoire? Personally I play the Marshall with Black, but I know almost nothing about it, as White never goes for the Spanish anyhow..
I can wholeheartedly recommend Lokander's Open Games With Black! It's a good read, easy to remember, covers all the non-Ruy lines, and offers a neat repertoire against each of them that leads to straightforward & fun positions.
In general I don't feel like this can really be a concern.. there are more than enough variations to make mostly everything "interesting", if you just look around a bit. Here's the start to my last OTB game against the London:
Now, is this too boring? ..