Any Good Ideas For Black's Defense of Spanish Opening: Exchange Variation?

Personally, I play the f6 lines these days.  It seems strange to play that move, since it's so bad in so many other openings, but since White has already voluntarily parted with his light-square bishop, it's not so dangerous.

I was always interested in this subject gonnosuke, and now I can confidently play my winawer positions where fritz thinks black is losing! But Fritz does not prefer Bxc6, because it's probably putting the bishops into the equation.

Whats interesting to me is that Fischer would play the exchange Ruy in serious games against serious competition, given his well known preference for bishops over knights throughout his career. A pair of bishops in his hands seemed to work miracles. I also noted in the last games of his life ( the 92 match with Spassky ) he seemed to have preferred knights over bishops..... odd. I dont know if Lasker had a preference between the two minor pieces but he also seemed fond of the exchange Ruy.

i may suggest the reader to see GM namesh and bhat idea on exchange variation of roy lopez

If you wish to give a6 a try instead of Nf6 Brandon then here's a line to consider which offers good chances otb and other practical play at most levels. Black gives a pawn for active play.

e4 e5, nf3 nc6, bb5 a6, bc6 dc, now if 00 then bg4, h3 Bh5!??!, g4 bg6, ne5 f6, ng6 hg.

Some ideas now for black are to place the bishop on d6, advance the g pawn, bring the knight to g6 and maybe f4, overload the h file and bust white. Always a downside though and if white knows his onions the build up of centre pressure can be tough to handle.

>:) 

87654321

Hi. I like the name by the way LOL :)

Anyway, the line you suggest is pretty interesting. I like the way that it creates an semi-open file in which Black can use to attack the King.

However, I'm not the strongest gambit player, but it does look like a lively game. I avoid blitz as much as I can, but at the clubs I visit, I do often get roped into playing some G/2 about every 4-6 weeks. This looks like a perfect new line to try out in such a scenario.

Gonnosuke

I think you're right that engines may show some of their weaknesses in their analysis of the Spanish Opening. When I just played for fun as a kid, I never fell in love with the Ruy Lopez because of how Black seemed to effortlessly gain spacial compensation in Closed Variations.

However, when I picked up the game seriously last summer, it amazed me at how Fischer played the opening to perfection. And I think NM tonydal or another Master posted in one of my previous threads that that's why the opening is also known as the Spanish Torture because of how White is able to slowly grind away Black's very proper and very classical defense like White was winning all along.

When I look at Fischer play White, it just has something to do with White's position, and the way the pieces are placed on the board; Black controls a healthy amount of space, sometimes even more than White, but White just somehow is always in control of a few critical squares that prove to be Black's undoing. 

I need to develop a love for the Open Sicilian like I have developed a love for the Ruy Lopez. That's probably the topic of a future thread!

 This is certainly true. However, its also true that white's win % is even smaller against the sicilian than in the exchange Spanish. So, why does black even play 1...e5, maybe its a mistake ?

Your database is screwed then. White doesn't have 60% against the Sicilian, or with 1.e4. White has 54-55% with 1.e4 (as with d4) and a bit less than that against the Sicilian.

1...e5 is probably the sounder move, it's just that 1...c5 is harder to play against. White can pick lines like the ruy or even a gambit and call the shots for the most part, while black can't always get counterplay (unless white makes a mistake) and so he fights for the draw instead of the win while white tries to use his small advantage. That's at GM play, at any other level anything could happen. But although 1...c5 gives black many more winning chances and puts pressure on white players, that in no way makes it sounder than 1...e5. in the najdorf for example isn't it weird that black is just ignoring development for the first few moves? It's hard to exploit, but probably possible, and computers very often like white by about a half a pawn throughout. But lets face it, if 1...c5 was just as good as ...e5 in correctness, it would be the best opening. But from a logical point of view, a computer always tries to play the best move and is it really the best strategy as black to leave an opening for white to attack instead of trying to keep as much space as possible? So I think 1...e5 is the sounder move but at the very least it would be quite wrong to say that 1...e5 is a terrible choice because of 1...c5 just because of the scores. The halloween gambit is hard enough to refute, so even with all of this theory on the sicilian, black stands well enough in most lines so it will be difficult to prove a big white advantage even if it's possible. So the sicilian is for those reasons a great choice anyways. In the english attack of the najdorf, both sides are attacking each other so you would think one of them make it faster. Maybe the losing side has a bail out trick to exchange off into a drawn endgame but I think one side will have to get some kind of moderate advantage in an opening like that.

im a fan of white playing this opening