The Ruy Lopez for the Tournament Player

by Gary Lane

Book Overview

This book provides a modern approach to the traditional opening in chess, which concentrates on illustrative games to show the important ideas for both sides. All the main lines of the Ruy Lopez are... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805023178
• ISBN13: 9780805023176
• Release Date: January 1992
• Publisher: Henry Holt & Company
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.4" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A great roadmap, for those brave enough to take The Path...

I have to wholeheartedly agree with Mr June, and can hardly think of anything to add to his commentary on this wonderful book. It amazes me, though, how "passed over" it seems to be by the chess community. I've never seen such a great O.O.P. chess volume go for so few peanuts on the secondary market! I think that, at the current used book prices, this just has to represent the single greatest bargain on the O.O.P. used chess book market today! I decided to embark on the complicated and often dangerous path of the closed Ruy/Spanish game, despite the stern warnings of a local master that I should stick to the less complicated exchange variation; and got my first, best introduction to the many variations and nuances of this complex opening from this single book. I was warned by this man that I should avoid 4.Ba4, as I was particularly liable to run into the Marshall Attack, which he warned was an absolute minefield for white. I played Fritz 9 (at full strength) against the Marshall recently, and 30 moves into the game, the position was still rated (=) by Fritz, after I played a variation recommended by Mr. Lane in his book. I'm afraid I must disagree on one point with Mr. June, in that I did not find there to be too many variations or lines to choose from at all. I feel sure that I have benefitted from each and every one, and couldn't think of one line that I would have ommitted from the book. I just can't help but give this book a full 5 stars, and wholeheartedly recommend it!

A suitable path through the forest of theory

Learning the Ruy Lopez can be a real pain for players -- indeed, there are many variations, and even as deep as the 9th move black retains a substantial amount of choices (Breyer, Chigorin, Zaitsev, and the Smyslov are all variations on the 9th move). Gary Lane tackles just about every significant variation (even some of the less important ones) in this book. Each variation gets a nice preface which summarizes the variation and what the major themes are. Lane nicely presents a key example or two of how white/black want to play and what to avoid. The examples of "what not to do" are especially helpful, and Lane's book seems singular in its ability to present this. So why should you buy this book over other Ruy books? Well, it gives a very good, precise overview of all the important variations in the Ruy. Things like the Schliemann, Archangelsk, delayed exchange, Cozio, and Berlin are all covered, in addition to the more "popular" closed systems like the Zaitsev, Chigorin etc. From the white side, buying a treatise on just ONE of these isn't going to cut it, because many black players have their own flavor of the Ruy which they like to play. In this sense, it offers a complete, solid, great reperotoire for the white player. From the black side, there are plenty of choices. If you want to CHOOSE one of the variations in the Ruy, this is a good way to pick among them. However, if you're looking to specialize in, say, the Breyer, pick up a book on that instead. Dave Norwood, a contemporary of Lane's, said this about openings books: "There are almost certainly more books written on chess than other sport or hobby, and yet so few can be read with anything approaching pleasure. Many opening books are little more than print-offs of ChessBase variations, with the analysis courtesy of Fritz. Any monkey could write them and I suspect that a lot of the time, they do." The reason I think it's proper to deduct a star (and this should not necessarily deter anyone) is that occasionally there are too many variations printed. It is difficult for a reader to pick and choose the variations to play; you should know some important deviations, but it's a hassle to get bogged down with four alternatives to 13...Rd8. Lane does a very solid job meeting Norwood's criteria for a book. Like many of the English authors, Gary Lane elucidates things textually and "Ruy Lopez for the Tournament Player" rarely comes across as a ChessBase printout. On a personal note, this book gained me hundreds of rating points.