Ruy Lopez for Beginners - The RL Berlin Defense is a Rollercoaster line
In this post, I'll be looking at the Ruy Lopez Berlin defense, which generally favors white, but black can play along as long as you don't fall for the traps which are precariously placed along the lines of the game.
While playing the Ruy Lopez as black, the Chigorin defense is a common option. However, the Berlin defense also works, though it defends something completely different as opposed to the previous line.
Pretty random exchanges here. If you want a clean, open game, you can continue the Ruy Lopez like this as black. However, this variation of the Berlin Defense is pretty much balanced. There are some more furious lines as well though, which will prove to be more of a poser than this position from Black's side. I don't recommend the Berlin defense as black because the game becomes difficult unless you play some careful moves.
If white castles as seen above in the Berlin defense, the pawn is indirectly protected and this opening trap is one which even higher rated players can't defend against. Sometimes, even titled players have a tendency to play the Berlin defense, but they probably won't capture the 'free' pawn. But if the Berlin defense is played, you want to castle for sure as white.
Some more things to look out for. If you look at the annotations above, you see that I've mentioned not to immediately recapture the pinned knight. Such rooks in the centre can get messy. Also, if we take the oppurtunity to develop our knight, we also have another oppurtunity to bring it to the center with Nd5. Now, further in the position, black's knight is free to take with our newly developed knight, the perfect chance to balance the game as we are down an exchange. However, Nd5 is better as it brings the knigh to an active square, attacks the bishop, and threatens to launch discovered attacks.
Concludingly, the Ruy Lopez isn't that bad. You just need to know how to play it. White should try traps on the Berlin defense, and try to keep the bishop active. Black's goals are to deactivate the bishop, not to fall for traps, and preffered line is the Chigorin Defense.
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