Schliemann defense

The Schliemann Variation is another reason why anyone under the level of master shouldn't play the Ruy Lopez OTB.  If White knows his theory for 20+ moves he can end up with a slight edge; but it is much easier and more fun to play as Black.

Hm, is it easy to play as Black though ? On move 4, the White has a choice of Nc3, d3, Bxc6, d4, exf5, and perhaps even a couple of other moves. None of these lines is particularly easy to play, and the Black has to be prepared for all of them.

I read somewhere that Philidor thought this defence to be a refutation of white playin Nf3. Seems like he was wayyyyy ahead of his time maybe in the near future if the defense becomes more popular the masters will have to stop playing Nf3. llol

I tmight not be as seen as much in top level because of the same reasin the KG Kings gambit isn't seen as much I also read about TOp players believeing that moving the the f-pawn so far to soon it weakens the  K-side. This might explain why the Bird openig isnt seen at all for peopl who are higher than 2700. 

Yes very intresting if this keeps up I might stop playing the Sicilian to give this opening a try. I dont fear the KG or the Italian game (Im not gonna see the Ruy Lopez all the time.)

I am surprised to see that Tarrasch would play such a deviant opening defence! A delightful game.

It's already gone public, best you see it out.

 the Schliemann's is played more at top level (2700+) look at any well know database

Granted, it does take some preparation on Black's part; but nothing like the preparation it takes to play the White side of Ruy Lopez.  Black well have certainly looked at all three of the critical White moves at home and decided on a plan.  In general the Black player is going to be much more familiar with variation than the White.  There are a few tough moves that Black has to prepare for, But it's much easier to attack then try to hold a positional plus.  When you defend you have to see everything, while the attacker just has to pick a line of attack and follow it.  Its always easier to play when your pieces are more active.

Ze Schliemann's defence/Gambit, is a very strong tool, all depends on how you treat it, t'is all I play as Black on line against ze Ruy, great games, very sharp play, & a good bit of study, & you shall get good results, but one shall suffer before one earns, time, trial & error, like any pet opening, yo!

I've played the Schliemann over 60 times in my career.  Very trappy.  Here is a recent quickie.

Actually Stockfish on my computer thinks black is fine and if you play the white side against stockfish you will find that there are minefields of traps white can fall into

Many people have a negative opinion of the Schliemann but that's because the old school opinion was passed down thru the generations. Modern opinion is that it is playable. It is a question of who to play it against. If you know your opponent prefers to play positional chess and plays the Ruy Lopez as white then they won't be happy to see 3...f5.

For more informations (and very good ones) about this defence, just have a look here :

https://www.chess.com/article/view/the-jaenischschliemann-gambit

https://www.chess.com/article/view/the-schliemann-gambit

I can't be sure because NN28 seems to have deleted their posts. But I'm guessing the engine line meant, deviating from Carlsen-Nisipeanu, is this one: 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 f5 4 Nc3 dxe4 5 Nxe4 d5 6 Nxe5 dxe4 7 Nxc6 Qg5 8 Qe2 Nf6 9 f4 Qxf4 10 Nxa7+.

Yes, the engines all love this move – for a while anyway. I get 10 Nxa7+ all the time in online games and it gives White nothing. (My score over the past two years: P12 W7 D5 L0.) The only drawback is that White can force an immediate draw - and indeed three of my opponents did just that (ffs).

Who has been here since 2014?

Quite unfortunately the direct 9.Nxa7+! has practically archived the whole line as problematic for Black.

That's certainly more testing than 10 Nxa7+, but it's not so clear either. There's a very important game with 9 Nxa7+ Bd7 10 Bxd7+ Nxd7 11 f4 Qf5! - Nekhaev-Nisipeanu, correspondence 2012. And I'm currently 4½/5 as Black in this line

All this is well covered in Sokolov's "Ruy Lopez revisited" (written in 2009), where he thinks black is ok.

However, he concludes Qg5's introduction by :

"I would not be surprised if in the future white players focus on the complicated 9.Nxa7 (instead of 9.f4), and that this becomes one of the main lines in the Jaenisch gambit."

Yes, Sokolov was the first to draw attention to 11...Qf5!, but other players have taken this line further since then. In particular, Nisipeanu came up with 12 Nb5 0-0-0 13 a4 Bb4!, which improves on Sokolov's 13...Bc5.