You got a lot of options here as white, I don't think any one option is the clearly winning in fact black may have the advantage. Black has only power pieces on his back row, and white still needs to develop 2 minor pieces. Perhaps Bg5 followed up by hacking that knight with the dark bishop. After this little exchange I think white has caught back up in terms of development, but will be facing a bishop pair however the board is fairly well closed at the moment so anyones game.
Kingside attack in Ruy Lopez
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I don't know that it's as simple as transferring pieces to the kingside and trying to attack. In my (albeit somewhat limited) experience with the Ruy Lopez, play usually comes in the centre or on the c file. I think both sides have a lot of flexibility in this system, and you have to think about the whole board instead of just one side.
Dec 27, 2011
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#5
Thank you for the replies.
I checked out some of the games that pfren mentioned (there were actually 8 in my database) but I'm not sure that studying that high level of almost contemporary master games without annotations is suitable for my level. I just had a quick look, but I didn't understand much of what was going on. I'm sure I would understand alot more if I studied the games deeply, but at my level (about 1400 OTB) I'm not sure this is the most efficient use of study time.
Frankdawg: what does white gain by exchanging his dark squared bishop for the knight at f6?
kvlc: of course we always have to consider the whole board, but if I'm not mistaken, the point of the transfer of the knight to the king side, as often happens, is to have the threat of an attack there.
coolking: I'm not sure what you're trying to say, but I like the move 3. 0-0. Never seen that one before.
Well, Ruy Lopez is a perfect opening to study if you want to improve your chess understanding and also eventually improve your rating and game performance - but it is also one of the most complicated openings, which is why GMs play it so frequently - since even at :their: level, with all the home preparation and experience - there is room for mistakes and mishandling of various positions... so don't feel bad if you don't get all the moves right, just do it slowly, analyze each loss and don't make the same mistakes next time, etc.
There are many annotated games where Ruy Lopez is played, that shouldn't be a problem to find (though I don't have any useful bookmarks to share)
Dec 30, 2011
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#7
Thank you, paul. I'll check out those games, but I'm having problem learning from unannoted master games. There is just so much going on that I can't understand at my present level.
Dec 30, 2011
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#8
the_cheradenine:
If the RL is so complicated, then perhaps players at my level should play less complicated side lines?
Jan 1, 2012
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#9
pfren: I know, we weaker players hear that all the time, that we shouldn't memorize variations without understanding. Yet, it is so tempting to memorize just one more move... :)
Thank you for the advice on the opening book. I will not buy it at the moment, as I much more important areas on my opening knowledge to work on first. As I stated earlier, the Ruy is actually the opening I feel most comfortable in, so before studying it in more detail I need to work on openings such as Sicilian and French as white and QGD as black.
I must confess that I was kind of hoping for a "quick fix" here, but after having looked at some of the games suggested in this thread, I realize that this opening is very complicated. The positive aspect of this is that it is also very complicated for my opponents. :)
Jan 1, 2012
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#11
Thank you, strateg. Another question: in the games mentioned in this thread, an early a2-a4 is often played. Why is this move played?
White's dark-squared bishop is often slow to develop so a4 creates the possibility of the rook getting into play along the 3rd rank, as well as putting pressure on Black's queenside structure
Wow old thread, but if you’re still Interested.. a lot of whites kingside attacking themes come from putting that queenside knight you mentions on f5. This is a key square as there are sacrificial themes on g7 and h6 if white had other pieces like the queen, Bishop, or rook that can swing in. Black will often try to kick out or prevent the knight move to f5 with g6, which weakens his kingside structure for further attack. F6 and h6 are now weak and can be exploited with the dark square bishops and the knight. You sometimes see the kingside knight aim for those squares by going h2 to g4. I’ve also seen white go g3, h4, kg2, rh1 and try to crack open the h file by pushing the pawn. Also don’t forget about the light squared “Spanish” bishop which can be a deadly sleeper on c2, where it looks blocked but if black trades away in the center then a timely e5 break can reveal the bishop against the king to devastating effect. I have seen the f4 break used to accomplish this as well. I’ve also seen h3 and g4 to support the knight on f5 and the king can still go to g2 to get the rook in play and the king knight can reinforce the f5 knight from f3 to h4
The closed Ruy Lopez is probably the opening I know best as so many players on this site plays it. I know about 9-10 moves or so for both sides, and I know that white is supposed to transfer his queen's knight to the king side (via d2, f1 and g3) and try to attack.
In my last (and first) OTB tournament I got to play the closed RL twice, one time as black and one time as white. I then realized that I have no idea how white is supposed to perform this king side attack, what pieces to put where etc.
Can anyone explain how white can conduct an attack against black in the typical position below? I'm not looking for specific move orders, I don't need to learn more theory, but rather general ideas on how such an attack can be conducted. I'd be very happy if someone could post some illustrative master games that show typical ideas in action.