Learning to play the Ruy as Black

Hey guys, I have recently just switched to playing ...e5 against 1.e4. Does anyone know any good resources for learning how to play it as Black? Books, videos, websites etc...

A bunch of possibilities:
Starting Out: Ruy Lopez by John Shaw (2003)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627024240/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen53.pdf
The Berlin Defence by Igor Lysyj & Roman Ovetchkin (2012)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627104938/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen159.pdf

https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/7076.pdf
Bologan's Ruy Lopez for Black by Victor Bologan (2015)

http://www.sjakkbutikken.no/produkter/bologans-ruy-lopez-for-black/

https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/9016.pdf
Attacking the Spanish by Sabino Brunello (2009)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627105306/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen124.pdf
http://www.qualitychess.co.uk/ebooks/Attacking_the_Spanish_excerpt.pdf
The Ruy Lopez Revisited by Ivan Sokolov (2009)

http://dev.jeremysilman.com/shop/pc/Ruy-Lopez-Revisited-The-p3765.htm

https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/931.pdf
Fighting the Ruy Lopez by Milos Pavlovic (2009)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627105306/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen124.pdf
Slay the Spanish by Timothy Taylor (2011)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627040230/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen146.pdf
The Kaufman Repertoire for Black & White by Larry Kaufman (2012)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140626221508/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen162.pdf

https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/955.pdf
Grandmaster Repertoire 13 – The Open Spanish by V. Mikhalevski (2013)

http://www.chessvibes.com/?q=reports/review-the-open-spanish-and-the-modern-benoni

https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/7234.pdf
Anti-Spanish. The Cozio Defence by Alexey Dreev (2014)
Playing 1.e4 e5 - A Classical Repertoire by Nikolaos Ntirlis (2016)

https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/7572.pdf
http://www.qualitychess.co.uk/ebooks/Playing1e4e5-excerpt.pdf
The Spanish Main Road by Evgeny Solozhenkin (2016)

https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/7595.pdf
The Zaitsev System by Alexey Kuzmin

https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/9036.pdf

KindaSpongey's dump is a strange mix of reviews and links to products. 

If you go through all of his links, the one thing that should stick out is that to learn to play the Spanish well is a great step to learning how to play chess well. It's known as the Queen of all openings for a reason. It is extremely rich tactically, strategically, and even historically. The best players in the world have all played it, most have played both sides of it.

Rather than go through all those sources, just start with something simple. Larry Evans once explained the Ruy Lopez move by move. Start there, then go through some games, more or less in chronological order. 

I'm having a hard time finding an online link to his article, which I think first appeared in Chess Life. When I find it, I'll post the link so you can read it.

hey

hello

play the Marshall.

play the Marshall.

Online review and sample availability varies from book to book. WildLlama did ask about books. I do what I can to find stuff that can help a person to decide whether this or that book is something they would be happy to try to use. Nobody is saying to "go through all those sources". It is just an attempt to provide an opportunity to browse as little or as much as one wants. A Chess Life article may well have some useful stuff, but many different options are not going to be introduced as they would in a book like Starting Out: Ruy Lopez. Such a book can provide handy access to a bunch of games, selected and explained by a titled player in the 21st century.

It seems like Mihal Marin's books are very good, so I"m starting to go though those. Thanks for everything everybody!

A good variation of the Spanish Game for Black is the Berlin Wall Defense. Basically it starts out with E4, E5, NF3, NC6, BB5, NF6.

 na a6 before Nf6

It is a very good choice!

I advice you to purchase the 2 volumes by Marin on 1.e4 e5.

The first on "no Ruy Lopez variation" (except exchange), and the second on Ruy Lopez.

Some may argue his choice of variations in Ruy are not fashionable, but which is very important are the ideas he gives.

The material given could enable u to chose another line (and learning it quite quickly) after reading the book.

Play over old master games that use this line.

I love Marin's books too.

Regarding the Berlin: unless you are Vladimir Kramnik or you know him personally, don't even bother! There's an excellent reason the Berlin languished for decades before Kramnik took it up. The stats are really dismal for Black below ~2300 strength. It's a dire defensive effort which requires a special sort of perserverance to play well.

Kramnik and other fantastic defensive players can get away with the Berlin, but it's just too much for most mortals to play well.

Kaufman's repertoire book might be worth a look.

A good introductory book on the Ruy Lopez is Daniel King’s “Mastering the Spanish”. Instead of an endless labyrinth of variations, it shows the basics of how to play the typical pawn structures arising from the opening. The book doesn’t really take you to mastering the opening, but it does give you a pretty good understanding of it. It’s amazing how much sense GM games make after studying the book.

Unfortunately, the book appears to be out of print, but there are used copies around.

Another interesting variation of the Spanish game is the Double Spanish game. After whites light squared Kingside Bishop pins your Queenside Knightight, you simply pin your darksquared Kingside Bishop to White's Queenside Knight.