Miniatures in the Ruy Lopez: Main Lines: 3 (Chess Miniatures)

Miniatures in the Ruy Lopez Main Line another great book in the Chess Miniatures Series!

The lines covered in this book, the Ruy Lopez Main Lines, arise (with a few exceptions for move order and such) after 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 0-0. The Ruy Lopez, or Spanish Opening if you like, is one of the oldest openings, named after a Spanish priest who first played it back in the 16th century.

The book features:

• 100 deeply annotated miniature games (25 moves or fewer)
• All major lines and variations of the Main Line Ruy Lopez are covered
• Hundreds of puzzle positions
• Wins for both Black and White
• Typical tactical patterns for both sides

Needless to say, it has been played a few times since and remains a popular opening at all levels of play.

Some of the lines are incredibly theoretical, but rather than burden you with a ton of theory in lines you will have limited chance of using in your own games, the emphasis is on the lines that are more likely to occur in your games. Those lines will be in chapters 3 and 4, the two longest chapters of the book.

This book is by no means an all-encompassing theory work, which means that there is a lot of theory that is not discussed in the notes. This is of course intentional. The book is written to entertain and inspire. If you find some lines that you like, you are encouraged to dive deeper into those lines before using them in your own games.

As for the games, they are typically between players with a rating of at least 2350 and often well more than that; you will find games between players rated above 2700 in this book.

The book will serve equally well for the chess instructor who wants to illustrate a tactical theme, those who want inspiration for the own opening repertoire as well as those who just want some enjoyable entertainment.