Ruy Lopez - Black's 3rd move alternatives

So I've decided to start playing the Exchange Ruy Lopez as white (1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Bxc6).

What other third move options for black are common enough that I need to be prepared for them? Any suggestions for how to play against the major variations? As black, I've always played 3. ... a6, so I'm not really familiar with the other variations of the Ruy Lopez.

--Fromper

The Berlin defense 3.Nf6

The classical/cordel defense 3.Bc5

The Steinitz defense 3.d6

Bird's defense 3.Nd4

Fianchetto defense 3.g6

The Cozio defense 3.Nge7

The Schliemann Defense 3.f5

 

Some of these you might just want to know enough to get started.  The Berlin defense you might want to know more about, although fairly rare, it's making a comeback.  It's probably the most common move other than 3.a6.  The cozio seems to come up a fair amount (enough anyway).  The Schliemann it's probably good to know the first couple of moves.   Never had it come up against me.  Steinitz and classical you probably want to know a bit about but they arent that common and are fairly intuitive for white i think.  Bird's is good to know what to do so it doesnt catch you off guard, but I dont think there's that much to know, and i think it's very rare.  

 

For me I think as black I would be quite relieved to see the exchange lopez though.  

I stopped playing the Ruy Lopez because of all of those responses.  Each of them are viable.  The Schliemann is intensely theoretical and you can get killed if you don't know the theory behind it.  Then you have to learn all of the Berlin and Open Variations and what to do after move 20 when you are down a pawn and how to capitalize on the compensation.  Plus you need to face all of those Bc5 setups and other strange moves that have their own quirks.  And even if you learn all of that theory, you can have fun playing against the Sicilian in addition to all of the other main defenses to 1. e4.   So if you have that kind of time, go for it!

haha, against the sicilian, play c3, and rest assured you already know more than your opponent who probably knows 30 moves of his favourite variation but none of the alapin.  The thing with the Schliemann is it's unsound, so you should be confident facing it.  Also from what i have seen, after you know how to deal with it in terms of first move and mindset, it seems to be that all the natural moves are the right moves.  I think the Berlin has similar lines to the open, and I find it is generally enough to know patterns and get a feel for the positions rather than memorising 20 different lines 20 moves deep.  That's what a sicilian player would do!

sstteevveenn wrote:   The thing with the Schliemann is it's unsound, so you should be confident facing it.Although numerous attempts by grandmasters of refuting it, nobody has been able to do so.  If it was unsound, Davies would not be recommending it in his book e4 e5!  Some grandmasters do play it from time to time.  You also better be prepared for an IQP if you play the Alapin.

I dunno, you can recommend something unsound from a practical point of view.  I think maybe it's like the Latvian, where there are those who say it's unsound, and those who are believers. 

 

Yeah, you get an IQP sometimes in the alapin, but you also get a comfortable position, central control, and a lazy opponent. 

Fromper, my advice for finding the out what to play against the main lines, is for you to just play the opening, and then analyse your games to identify mistakes in the opening. Look over the games of masters and try and understand their ideas. Be wary and hyper critical of comments and evaluations of others. If you feel comfortable in a position then this likely suites your style of play. Use a chess computer to test your own ideas - look for improvements - think for yourself and be yourself! This is far better than trying to prepare and memorise lines that you may never play.

The Exchange Variation can give you a nice endgame, but you won't have the bishop pair.

If I were an e4 player, I would play the exchange all of the time.

I like the Schliemann - I tend to win or lose spectacularly with it, but I enjoy playing the black side of it more than other move 3 Ruy responses. Radjabov has had some nifty games in it.

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This amused me a bit. If you were an e4 player, you'd be less likely to play the exchange. As you aren't, that's the one you think you'd choose.

Seems to be a bit like a pacifist saying "if I *were* to go to war, I definitely wouldn't use any nefarious war techniques".

Wow. Talk about thread necromancy. I stopped playing this opening a year ago.