Easy Guide to the Ruy Lopez [Paperback]

John Emms (Author)

Book Description

Series: Easy Guide | Publication Date: July 1, 1999

In this easy-to-follow guide, you are taken through the main concepts that underlie the Ruy Lopez, leading on to a carefully organized repertoire. The content is up-to-date and contains enough information to enable you to play the Ruy Lopez with confidence without you being flooded with extraneous detail. Written by a renowned Ruy Lopez expert, this guide covers all Black's main replies. Everyman's Easy Guide series represents a new approach to chess opening books: just enough detail and just enough explanation to enable readers to play an opening with confidence, without months of memorizing theory-the easy way to master a chess opening. Grandmaster John Emms is one of the stars of English chess, and shared first place in the super-strong 1997 British Championship. He is an extremely experienced player and trainer, and part of the team that wrote Everyman's one-volume openings encyclopedia, Nunn's Chess Openings.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

In this easy-to-follow guide, you are taken through the main concepts that underlie the Ruy Lopez, leading on to a carefully organized repertoire. The content is up-to-date and contains enough information to enable you to play the Ruy Lopez with confidence without you being flooded with extraneous detail. Written by a renowned Ruy Lopez expert, this guide covers all Black's main replies. Everyman's Easy Guide series represents a new approach to chess opening books: just enough detail and just enough explanation to enable readers to play an opening with confidence, without months of memorizing theory-the easy way to master a chess opening. Grandmaster John Emms is one of the stars of English chess, and shared first place in the super-strong 1997 British Championship. He is an extremely experienced player and trainer, and part of the team that wrote Everyman's one-volume openings encyclopedia, Nunn's Chess Openings. (5 11/16 X 8 3/16, 144 pages, illustrations)

About the Author

John Emms is one of Britain¿s strongest Grandmasters and is a member of the English national team. He has also carved out a reputation for being an excellent chess writer and has many works under his name. He is co-author of the very popular openings bible Nunn¿s Chess Openings.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Everyman Chess; 1st edition (July 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1857442202
• ISBN-13: 978-1857442205
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,676,457 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good repertoire book for the Ruy Lopez, March 23, 2005

By 

Jill Malter ([e-mail]) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Easy Guide to the Ruy Lopez (Paperback)

This book is good at what it is supposed to be good at. If you want to start playing the Ruy with White, you ought to get a repertoire book or two. And this is a very reasonable choice.

No, it doesn't cover the Exchange Variation. That is the whole point. Larry Kaufman's book (The Chess Advantage in Black and White) is a fine repertoire book that has White playing the Exchange Variation, so if you want to do that, get his book, not this one.

But if you want to play the real Ruy Lopez, get this book.

You probably already have some ideas about how you want to meet some variations of the Ruy. The reason you need a repertoire book is so that you can get ideas about how to meet some of the lines you don't know much about. And this book is great at explaining the ideas behind the various defences, as well as giving some specific lines to play.

Of course, the book is a few years old already. But I think that is not a big problem. Theory hasn't changed all that much, and the ideas that are presented are, for the most part, valid. You will want to stay up-to-date on some lines, of course.

The author recommends playing the anti-Marshall with 8 a4. That is not a bad line, but I certainly prefer allowing Black to play the Marshall. That's not a problem with the book, of course, merely a personal preference.

I do have a minor complaint about the book, however. Namely, suppose you read this book and then play, um, me. What will happen? Will you be prepared for what I play in the opening?

No.

You see, as Black, I'll play the Berlin Defence. Emms spends twelve pages on this defence and gives the ideas behind it. But this book is faulty on both the ideas and the lines if you play me. I've played the Berlin for over thirty years as Black. And when I get into the endgame Emms recommends, my first choice is always to get my King to the Queenside, to b7 or c6, where it is both safe and active. If you take the advice in this book, you'll let me do that. The line is 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 Nf6 4 0-0 Nxe4 5 d4 Nd6 6 Bxc6 dxc6 7 dxe5 Nf5 8 Qxd8+ Kxd8 9 Nc3.

At this point, I may play 9...Bd7, which this book does not consider. But even if I play 9...Ne7, 9...h6, or 9...Be6, all of which the book does consider, you still will not be expecting my King to head for the Queenside, with my pawns on b6, c7, and c5. On top of this, recent high-level grandmaster games seem to be confirming the power of my strategy.

And one more tidbit. The book has a good chapter on the Open Variation: 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 0-0 Nxe4 6 d4. Well, there is an unsound and flaky try for Black here, which I occasionally spring on folks in 5-minute games, namely 6...exd4 (the infamous Riga Variation). The book gives some good advice here, but it stops just one move short. It advises 7 Re1 d5 8 Nxd4 Bd6 9 Nxc6 Bxh2+ 10 Kh1! (not Kxh2, which gives Black a perpetual) 10...Qh4 11 Rxe4+ dxe4 12 Qd8+ Qxd8 13 Nxd8+ Kxd8 14 Kxh2. Yes, but the book needs to give you just one more move, because when I play 14...Be3, half my opponents play 15 Nc3? They are not happy when I reply 15...c5, winning material. This silly trap is the whole point of this defence, so the book should have warned everyone.

On the whole, however, I think it is an excellent book. I recommend it.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Working Picture of the Opening, January 10, 2000

By 

Astrocloud "astrocloud" (Phoenix, AZ USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Easy Guide to the Ruy Lopez (Paperback)

This book offers advice for the practitioner of the Spanish. It is reasonably complete in the fact that it covers the opening from the point of view of black's responses.

As you know the Spanish goes 1. e4-e5, 2. Nf3-Nc6 3. Bb5 ... It is here where the author starts. The book goes through all the major variations in some detail. (Often my computer will eventually diverge down some hidden lines of play which were overlooked by this book.) The only major drawback with this book is that the exchange variation is not covered in-depth.

Overall, this is a good book and recomended for any player. (Also, if you are a beginner and are looking to study the openings, the Ruy Lopez and the Queen's Gambit are a good place to start.)

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great introduction to the Ruy, September 29, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Easy Guide to the Ruy Lopez (Paperback)

I am an intermediate player who is trying to improve my opening play. For someone like me this book is great! It covers all of blacks major responses (atleast the ones I've met with) and gives you enough moves to get you into a good middle game position. I also found the chapters where the author explains some of the "ideas" and common themes very helpful.