Ruy Lopez

The book by Horowitz is 40 years old and is in descriptive notation.

The exchange variation was used by Gata Kamsky to avoid the Marshall Attack, but Gata can use technique to squeeze a win better than many.

 The Archangel Variation has been used in recent years to produce some interesting chances for Black initiative.

Reb's suggested 5.d4 is a way to avoid many variations.

My articles on this site covering the Ruy Lopez are (so far):

"Rusudan Goletiani" has 5.d4

"Ruy Lopez: Open Defense"

"Ruy Lopez: Open to Rudeness" has the Open Defense

"Ruy Lopez: Berlin Without the Wall"

I have never played the Ruy, as best as I can recall, but I have played against it many times.  I enjoy playing against it.  Plenty of people will disagree with me on my approach to learning any opening, but here it is:

First learn the basic ideas of the initial opening moves.  Edward Lasker, in his book Chess Strategy, explains this very well.  Then play it against a stronger opponent and then go over your game and figure out where you lost.  Then next time figure out a play to overcome the reason you lost the last time.

In doing this I once played the Marshall over 15 moves deep having never studied it at all.  I just realized I needed to play d5 earlier than I had and played it by ear.  Actually I transposed into a Marshall from a Morphy (also which I had not studied but just felt like those moves should work).

The idea is not to memorize moves but understand what move you should play to answer your opponent's move.  And getting beat by that opening and then studying why is a great way to figure out for yourself good defenses.

The one defense to the Ruy that I have studied is Bird's.  And if you want to get somebody out of book real quick, that will almost certainly do it - 3...Nd4.  A GM will tell you that it's an unsound defense, but I've beaten players rated 400 points higher than me using it.  They knew a lot of moves in the Ruy, but they didn't know that.

But even with that, knowing WHY the moves are played frees you from having to memorize.  If you know the why and figure out a good attack or defense using your own head (even if someone smarter had figured out the same thing long ago), then you don't have to memorize, you can always figure it out again.

Again, thanks. I am a bit hesitant about using the CARL though, as the position reminds me a bit about the scotch. The website I posted a bit earlier says that the scotch "leads to an early clash but perhaps also an early simplification, with a loss of tension and thus winning chances for both sides." Also, upon looking through the site carefully, it gives one line on the CARL and says that the position is about equal, although it also says that juniors may enjoy playing it. However, considering the percentage of white wins with the Spanish Game, I was looking forward to getting some sort of an advantage as white, and at least counter-chances as black. Also, although it will be difficult and may be boring, I do not want to avoid opening theory in the Lopez. There are two reasons for this: 1) I believe I read in the introduction of Play 1e4 e5! by Nigel Davies that an extensive grounding in the Ruy Lopez is essential if you want to develop your game. Seeing as 5.d4 avoids as much theory, I worry that I will miss out on all the learning that the Spanish Game has to offer. 2) In the book Starting Out: 1 d4! by John Cox, the introduction talks about how the main lines are the main lines for a reason- they have strongest, most sensible moves in them. He then goes on to explain how it is best to start playing the strongest moves now because it will become even harder to make the change as time goes on. If you do not switch early, it may hold your game back. 5.d4 seems to not be a very popular line, therefore not a main variation, therefore not the strongest move that I can play.

Thank you all, this is great help to an unrated novice. As I work to learn the Ruy Lopez as white, which is the best defense as black?

since this is a ruy lopez thread, when white has his desired position ( like knights on f3 and g3, classical pawn center, and well placed bishops) how does white actually use this advantage for attack? Does he make a pawn storm? this is the closed variation.