Product Description
Though the Ruy Lopez is one of the oldest openings in chess, it offers a host of exciting new variations just discovered in recent years; and though a favorite of champions such as Kasparov and Anand, it has a tactical clarity that makes it ideal for beginners. Australian champion Gary Lane provides a comprehensive course on the opening: the tricks and traps for both Black and White, and the full range of variations, attacking and positional–all explained and illustrated with the help of a stellar selection of model games. A must-have for all players seeking to improve their opening play.
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“The Ruy Lopez Explained” by Gary Lane is a Batsford book,evidently one of a series of “Explained” titles.
Despite the title,it’s actually a White repertoire,not a two-sided discussion of the Ruy.
Gary Lane is a good writer, with the gift of writing in a breezy,conversational style.
Chapter headings are “Rare 3rd moves,Berlin,Classical,Schliemann,Deferred Steinita and other 4th moves,Open,Worrall Attack,Moller,Arkangel,Marshall Attack, and 9.d4.
Thus the main line closed defenses (9.h3) are avoided.
Although physically of normal size, the typeset is very large and open, leaving the book smaller than it appears.
I was disapointed in the superficiality of the coverage.
Compared,for ex. to “The 3.Bb5 Sicilian Revealed” (Neil MacDonald) that spends a lot of time on explanation and strategy in concrete terms.
The “explanations” here are very lazy,e.g. under the Moller variation the “Basic Plan for White” ENTIRE “discussion” is:”It is a good idea to try and prevent Black from taking the initiative in the opening. A theme for White is to play an early a4 to weaken the b5 pawn and continue to pursue it with a later Na3″.
And I think the author was also lazy in the actual content,e.g., in place of 5.O-O,Be7 6.Qe2 if you want to play the Worrall you’d instead probably play 5.Qe2 and avoid the chance of facing the Open. (Nigel Davies mentions this).
Pruning tricks like this are what I would like to see in a repertoire book.
Of course Gary Lane has forgotten more about the Ruy than I’ll ever know. I just think he didn’t try very hard to write this book.
To be fair, ChessCafe reviewer Carsten Hansen thought pretty highly of the effort. Altho I greatly respect Carsten Hansen’s reviews in general, I can’t agree with this one.
Amazon User Rating: 3 / 5