Customer Reviews

Easy Guide to the Ruy Lopez

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4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
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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.

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.)

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.

Hello I'm a player who first used to play openings like the scotch gambit, and the itialian (Bc4), but I began to see it is difficult to get a opening advantage with that openings and the tricks only work until 1800-level. In this book you get the ideas and the most impotant variantions. The subvariations are not to much mentioned but most of the times that's because you have to be able to refuse the worse moves yourself. It's rather written for the white side, but it's more objective than most books. It's a repertoire book and there are parts of the ruy lopez like the Marshall gambit you won't find here because they advice for white to play the anti-marshall. I think that's a adventage so you won't have to see in a game yourself why some variations are worse.

Hello I'm a player who first used to play openings like the scotch gambit, and the itialian (Bc4), but I began to see it is difficult to get a opening advantage with that openings and the tricks only work until 1800-level. In this book you get the ideas and the most impotant variantions. The subvariations are not to much mentioned but most of the times that's because you have to be able to refuse the worse moves yourself. It's rather written for the white side, but it's more objective than most books. It's a repertoire book and there are parts of the ruy lopez like the Marshall gambit you won't find here because they advice for white to play the anti-marshall. I think that's a adventage so you won't have to see in a game yourself why some variations are worse.

This is a very serious opening work in the very complex world of Ruy Lopez variations. Well constructed and very useful for learning. Only the absence of some very important lines reduces it's qualification. Those lines are, in my opinion: the Worral Attack, the Exchange Variation and most of all, the Marshall counter-gambit.