The Berlin has absoluetly ruined the Lopez, fun-wise.
If you play it as white, hoping for a6, you go home disappointed because the Berlin is all you see these days. If you played the mainline closed lines as black, you see ten times as many exchanges as you used to because no one wants to face the thing.
Sad days, these.
I just moved over to the slow Italian lines, which make me feel a little bit good, but not as good as I'd feel in an ideal world where people still played a6.
Alas.
It's practically the mainline of the Ruy these days, at least at the top level. It also seems to have given white players a lot of trouble in terms of finding an effective way to break it down, no one has been all that successful since Kramnik's introduction of the line in 2000 in my opinion.
Thanks for the response, and it appears I was right on the matter. I don't play the Berlin Defense, so what is the main goal of playing it?
Bore the opponent into submission and/or make a draw?
Now that the Berlin Defense has been discovered and used, the Ruy Lopez is more likely to end as a draw on the practical level.
If you wish good practical chances you could try the Ponziani. Or the Vienna Game which also takes care of the Petroff.
However 1. e4 e5 is now more drawish than 1. d4 or 1. c4 or 1. Nf3
Or look at your opponents histories and only choose opponents who do not reply 1. e4 with e5!
The Berlin Defence for the Ruy Lopez became popular after Kramnik used it on Kasparov in the Classical World Chess Champion 2000. Fastforward to 2013 and Carlsen uses it against Anand. In both cases, the one who used the Berlin Defence came out on top. This suggests to me that there needs to be a counter to the Berlin Defence or at least a novelty move to throw a wrench into the opening. The reason is that it's a popular and powerful opening that I doubt will go away soon.