non-drawish response to ruy lopez exchange?

I'm looking for non-drawing responses to ruy lopez exchange

is there a non-drawish variation in the exchange?

The two most ambitious variations for Black in the exchange Ruy are 5.0-0 f6 6.d4 Bg4, and 5.0-0 Qf6. Of course there are other moves who give Black a good game, but these two are the most ambitious.

The variation 5.0-0 Bg4 6.h3 h5 is too much analysed to bother about it- I prefer playing chess, not replaying a dozen of moves I've read somewhere.

5.Nxe5 Qd4 6.Nf3 Qxe4+ 7.Qe2 is NOT easy equality: white has no kingside majority, Black has a nice bishop pair, and easy development. In short, Black is already slightly better.

After 5.0-0 Bg4 6.h3  have had a few opponents play 6...Bh5 black seems to get reasonable play for pawn after 7g4 etc. In a game in New In Chess from 2011, saw a game with young swedish player Hammer playing it. So might be more sound than used to think.

I second that, and I had good expreriences with this line. But unfortunately white can play 7.d3 and continue to bore black to death.

pfren's suggestion 5...Qf6 seems most reasonable to me.

Regarding the 5.Nc3 f6 6.d4 variation, Marin in his repertoire book advocates the interesting move 6...Bb4!? which is slightly risky, but ensures an unbalanced middlegame.

And, of course, 5...Qd6 is now perfectly reasonable (white has no more the Na3-Nc4 idea).

if queens come off then black is better because he has the bishop pair in open position

 That "tempo up" is the move f7-f6, so Black would rather be happy he has lost a move and not weakened e6. Trading queens followed by Bd7 (no early ...c5 of course) is most consistent, but Black can also play Bd7 or Bg4 without trading.

Wrong. If that was the case then everybody would play 5.d4. But after 5...ed4 6.Qxd4 Qxd4 7.Nxd4 Bd7 Black has a small advantage.

In the 5.Nc3 Qd6 variation, white can have the same position with an extra move (the knight on c3). But structurally this changes little: Black still has the bishop pair, easy development and no weaknesses. I don't believe that white can hope for anything more than equality, and his position is technically not so easy to handle.

After

The Ruy Lopez is the most drawish opening in chess, if you don't want to draw, and want to win, play the Parham.

Gavinator- Not true.  I would say that the petrov lines are more drawish, as are the slav lines, as shown in the recent world championship match.  Though I obviously have to concede that the Berlin Defense is perhaps as dry as it gets, there are other options for both sides.  The exchange Spanish where white castles can lead to some interesting play.  Also the Cordel defense and Marshall Attack lead to dynamic play.

Ok, maybe not the MOST drawish, but it's one of the most. It's much more drawish then an Italian or Parham.

Personally I love the Berlin Wall.

I want to win, and and I don't really care if my win will be dry or wet.

Levon Aronian does the same, apparently more succesfully than myself. Whenever he doesn't mind a draw, he plays the Marshall.

No body is allowed to reply to Gavinator or whatupyodog on this thread!!

also 5.0-0 f6 6.d4 Bg4 seems interesting. I'll look into it. thanks

Why am I not allowed to have an opinion?

I don't understand how the spanish exchange is drawish at all, black has his pawn structure damaged in return for the bishop pair, this doesn't sound boring sounds like a static vs dynamic imbalance where both sides are trying to push their agendas.  (yes i know i sound like Silman but after all I am reading his 4th edition of Reassess your Chess)

You make it sound so easy, i have found it very difficult personally to contain black's bishops.  If the spanish exchange was winning I doubt we would ever see nc6 played as black again.

Oh my, yet another genius who has refuted the Ruy Lopez, and that with a fairly insipid variation...

White can have the same structure in the Berlin variation as well, plus damaging Black's castling, plus gaining a couple of tempos over the exchange variation. So -the verdict is clear: The Berlin loses by force.

Now, go tell that to any serious player, and you will give him a good laugh. A super-Grandpatzer named Kasparov or something like that, lost his crown because he could not find a way to break the wall.

You are confusing the les-than-average Joe with a professional super-GM, and that is a bad thing.

Kaufman largely copypasted in his book Shirov's comments from his DVD about the Tkachiev Ruy, and has used a single game as example.

Here is a game where Black followed Kaufman's line (Shirov deviated against Karjakin, and eventually lost):

Instead of entering that drawish ending with 20.Bh6 and 21.Qxf7 (which he eventually managed to lose) white can keep a small, safe edge by the logical 20.Rae1. These kind of positions are not fun to play as Black.

I'd rather take Marin's recommendations over Kaufman's any time of the day: Marin is an excellent player, has done a very serious job in his books (where he advocates 5...f6 6.d4 Bg4), and his explanatory prose is of extremely high quality.

In his latest repertoire book Kaufman uses one game on the 5...Bg4 variation, namely Vachier Lagrave- Shirov, Bundesliga 2009/10. The above continuation starting with 15.Nb3(!) is given as a sideline.

Alternatively, he gives one game with the continuation suggested by Marin, but he clearly states he prefers 5...Bg4.