The Ruy Anti Marshall by GM Arun and GM Magesh

This week we have decided to dwell a little more on the Spanish opening, also famously called the Ruy Lopez. We studied one of the main lines, the Chigorin defense last week, this time around we can discuss the Anti-Marshall variation. As the name suggests, the main purpose of this variation is to avoid the Marshall attack and reach a position that by all means is exactly opposite to the Marshall.

If the Marshall attack is sharp, tactical and requires precise calculation both over the board and at home, the Anti-Marshall is not so sharp, less tactical and more positional in nature. This positional approach is one of the reasons this opening is an important choice for strong players.

We have managed to narrow down a selection of a few games that can illustrate the main ideas behind this particular variation. Our readers by now probably know that when we get a chance to explain the ideas from Vishwanathan Anand's game, we definitely do not miss that. So let us see our first game in which Vishy expertly outplays Grishchuk in this opening.

Our second game is an interesting queen sacrifice from Ivanchuk. The material imbalance in itself makes this game quite interesting. In the end Aronian did miss a simple chance to equalize and gave up the whole point.

Our last game is a rapid game that I (Magesh) played against the young Grand Master Fabiano Caruana. I did go very low on time, but as I managed to keep the position simple, the increment was enough to take me through the entire game.

Hopefully our readers have gained a good idea on the Anti Marshall setup by now. We may have had enough Ruy Lopez for this month, so next week we will get back with another opening.