What is the best defence against Ruy Lopez?
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What is the best defence against Ruy Lopez? Personally, I like to play the Cozio defence against it.
I would definitely play the Marshall Attack. Sorry Berlin Followers.
I certainly don't have the level of Ruy Lopez experience of other commenters here, but I offer one variation for consideration, the Archangelsk and Neo-Archangelsk variations.
I've played 1...e5 as an answer to 1 e4 only once in years because I looked at a daily opponent's record in the chess.com opening explorer and saw he lost to Black something like 5 out of 6 games against the Ruy Lopez. I won. I used the Morphy Defense (3...a6) Neo-Archangelsk Variation (4 Ba4 Nf6 5 O-O b5 6 Bb3 Bc5) because I liked my King's Bishop on the a7-g1 diagonal, pointing at key square f2 early on, following the fourth of Fred Wilson's 4 Principles in Simple Attacking Plans: If possible, point all your pieces at your opponent’s king. Note that the 6...Ba7, the Archangelsk Variation, has a similar theme.
Anyway, we got here after 8 moves and it's a playable position. Both sides have Bishops aiming along the same mirror-image diagonals, Black has two Knights on good first-development squares.
The best defense against the Ruy Lopez is to avoid it all together. 2...Nf6!
I always ask myself WWJD? what would Jan (Timman) do? 🤣
Possibly helpful:
Starting Out: Ruy Lopez by John Shaw (2003)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627024240/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen53.pdf
First Steps: 1 e4 e5
https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/7790.pdf
A Spanish Repertoire for Black by Mihail Marin (2007)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140626195205/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen102.pdf
The Berlin Defence by Igor Lysyj & Roman Ovetchkin (2012)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627104938/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen159.pdf
https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/7076.pdf
The Ruy Lopez: A Guide for Black by Sverre Johnsen and Leif Johannessen (2007)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627023224/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen94.pdf
Bologan's Ruy Lopez for Black by Victor Bologan (2015)
http://www.sjakkbutikken.no/produkter/bologans-ruy-lopez-for-black/
https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/9016.pdf
Play 1 e4 e5! by Nigel Davies (2006)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140626201436/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen80.pdf
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627083715/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen98.pdf
The Berlin Wall by John Cox (2008)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627050257/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen115.pdf
Attacking the Spanish by Sabino Brunello (2009)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627105306/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen124.pdf
http://www.qualitychess.co.uk/ebooks/Attacking_the_Spanish_excerpt.pdf
The Ruy Lopez Revisited by Ivan Sokolov (2009)
http://dev.jeremysilman.com/shop/pc/Ruy-Lopez-Revisited-The-p3765.htm
https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/931.pdf
Fighting the Ruy Lopez by Milos Pavlovic (2009)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627105306/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen124.pdf
Slay the Spanish by Timothy Taylor (2011)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627040230/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen146.pdf
The Kaufman Repertoire for Black & White by Larry Kaufman (2012)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140626221508/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen162.pdf
https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/955.pdf
Grandmaster Repertoire 13 – The Open Spanish by V. Mikhalevski (2013)
http://reviews.dailychess.org/grandmaster-repertoire-13-the-open-spanish-qualitychess-by-v-mikhalevski/
https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/7234.pdf
Anti-Spanish. The Cozio Defence by Alexey Dreev (2014)
Playing 1.e4 e5 - A Classical Repertoire by Nikolaos Ntirlis (2016)
https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/7572.pdf
http://www.qualitychess.co.uk/ebooks/Playing1e4e5-excerpt.pdf
The Spanish Main Road by Evgeny Solozhenkin (2016)
https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/7595.pdf
The Zaitsev System by Alexey Kuzmin
https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/9036.pdf
The Schliemann Defence: Move by Move
https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/7797.pdf
There are about (roughly) 20 good variations for black against 3...Bb5.
If there was a best one, everybody would play it but at high level, u could see that they play several variations.
Personally, I like to play the Morphy Defence
The Morphy defence means nothing.
This is just the beginning of the beginning...
WWSD? What would Steinitz do? There's your answer.
Morphy defense is if exchange, take with the d pawn and fork the e pawn and knight. the knight either has to move or defend with the f pawn, which is also bad.
otherwise, dont play the caro variation because of a fried liver that is harder to defend.
