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 The Ruy Lopez: A Guide for Black
By Sverre Johnsen and Leif Johannessen Sverre Johnsen is a FIDE-rated player from Norway. He is an enthusiastic chess analyst, researcher and writer, and co-author of Win with the London System, one of the most popular openings books of recent years. Leif Johannessen is a young grandmaster, also from Norway. He plays in several national leagues and has represented his country in many team events. The quality of his opening preparation is shown by the fact that he won the prize for most important theoretical novelty in Informator 92.
The Ruy Lopez (or Spanish Opening) is one of the critical chess battlegrounds. It has long been recommended as an excellent chess opening for training purposes, as it leads to a wide variety of structures and strategies.
This book is a complete guide to handling the black side of the Lopez, based principally around the Zaitsev Variation (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 0-0 9.h3 Bb7), upon which Anatoly Karpov relied during much of his career. This line leads to sharp play, often in open battles where Black gains active counterplay and challenges White to seize the initiative on the kingside. The authors explain in detail how Black can weather the storm. They also explain how Black can handle the practical problem of the Ng5 repetition, and recommend reliable procedures against White's other options in the Lopez, starting off with the Exchange Variation, and moving on to a variety of closed systems.
Throughout, the emphasis is on what readers actually need to know and understand in order to play the opening successfully in practice. There is a great deal of explanation of important ideas, and the authors take pains to guide their readers away from potential pitfalls.
First both Sverre and Leif write their own preface. They explain how they got the material, decided on lines, and a few other various topics on the book. Next is Part 1, the introduction. Here they give some questions to see if it is a good opening for you and also go over the typical maneuvers, common ideas, and general principles in this opening. Also in the introduction they give a "Ruy Lopez Overview" which goes over some of the different major variations.
Part 2, "The Main Battleground", starts the core of the book, going over the zaitsev main line, 17...c4 zaitsev, zaitsev side lines, and the lines if white tries the Ng5 repetition. The third part goes over the lines with rare 8th and 9th moves, as well as 5th and 6th move alternatives for white. Part 4 is on the exchange variation, and delayed exchange variations. The chapters have annotated games at the end to even further your knowledge on the opening. At the back of the book there is the usual index of variations for a quick find the line you wish to study.
A great book for anyone who plays or wishes to take up the black side of this wonderful and instructive opening. If you are not comfortable playing this opening, often don't know what to do, or are simply looking for more ideas, this is one book you need.
NSG rating = 9.8 of 10 |
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