Elubas wrote:
Against e5 only the ruy lopez can give white an advantage with best play.
I couldn't disagree more. Black achieves equality with relative ease in the Ruy Lopez. For proof, look at the draw rate in GM games - it's 50% or more! White doesn't play the Ruy because it offers him an advantage, he plays it because it leads to rich middlegames with plenty of opportunities to outplay his opponent.
The draw rate in most openings are 50% more for GMs. Theoreticians and GMs agree that the Ruy Lopez is practically *the* one opening where White can rely on a slight advantage to try to exploit. Kasparov, Karpov... the list is endless.
There's a reason it's called the 'Spanish Torture'.
I hope you don't assume your opponent is bad and doesn't understand your opening. then he's probably just a bad player. I think it has more success against a player who is weaker than you so that you can prove to them that the opening wins. But against someone of equal or higher strength, I wonder what the results of always benoni would be. It's just very shaky theoretically making it at the very least risky. I differ it from the KID simply because although it has been challenged it seems to be in better shape than the benoni. It's mostly just the bayonet attack that's becoming a slight problem. Why are you trying to get me think that the benoni is really good because it's almost refuted? And that Kasparov is crazy and he's wrong about what he says? He's a pretty strong player, why flat out deny what he says?
Against e5 only the ruy lopez can give white an advantage with best play.
I couldn't disagree more. Black achieves equality with relative ease in the Ruy Lopez. For proof, look at the draw rate in GM games - it's 50% or more! White doesn't play the Ruy because it offers him an advantage, he plays it because it leads to rich middlegames with plenty of opportunities to outplay his opponent.
Looks like you also disagree with robking because he said almost any opening leads to advantage for white. I don't know about other variations, but when I look at mco in the chigorin and breyer variations, most seem to give white a slight edge. The draws at top level play are probably because the advantage is too small and the gm can easily hold the draw. After all, ...e5 is probably the most solid and reliable defense of all. I just thought I could rely on mco! What secondary source do you go by? I think white plays it for both reasons. I am not someone who blindly critisize openings. I had a lot of reasons to call it "unreliable". In the scandiv black can hold a draw more easily but with benoni he could lose many times especially against a well prepared opponent. The problem is made worse that even if black plays all the right moves, white can still get a nice position. It's definitley not an easy opening, and black has to deal with white's center and a4 moves prevetning ...b5. That great advance was always hard for me in my games. So I wouldn't play this thing fearlessley. Ever try the Benko Gambit? I think it's a better version of the benoni because it can take over the initiative, for many moves so black's only problem is the extra pawn which he can try to neutralize.