Pavlovic, Fighting the Ruy Lopez

The Ruy Lopez is a hugely popular opening, and anyone who plays 1 e4 e5 as Black needs to have a reliable answer ready. This book provides a solution.

Drawing upon his years of experience facing the Lopez, Grandmaster Milos Pavlovic devises a sound yet ambitious repertoire for Black based on the legendary Marshall Attack. The Marshall is a perfect counter-attacking weapon, as it avoids passive positions and the so-called Spanish torture . Furthermore, Black s tactical and positional goals are usually clear-cut and often involve a direct attack against White s king. The effectiveness of the Marshall is clear if you consider that the last two world champions have both suffered crushing defeats on the white side (Kramnik vs Leko, Brissago 2004, Anand vs Aronian, Morelia 2008) whilst Garry Kasparov always avoided it with White.

- A complete repertoire against the Ruy Lopez
- Highlights the typical plans for both sides
- Full of original ideas and analysis

Contents

Preface 5

Introduction: The Ideas Behind the Marshall Attack 7

Part One: Gambit Lines

1 - The Main Line 15
2 - The Modern Rook Shuffle: 15 Re4 26
3 - The Mysterious Retreat: 13 Re2 40
4 - The Kevitz Variation: 12 Bxd5 cxd5 13 d4 45
5 - The Dangerous 12 d3 49
6 - The Tricky 12 g3 64
7 - Declining the Marshall 69

Part Two: Anti-Marshall Lines

8 - The 8 h3 Anti-Marshall 75
9 - The 8 a4 Anti-Marshall 96
10 - The 8 d4 Anti-Marshall 107
11 - The Steinitz Variation: 8 d3 119

Part Three: Other Lines

12 - The Worrall Attack 130
13 - The Delayed Exchange Variation 137
14 - Early d4 and Nc3 Variations 144
15 - The Exchange Variation 156

168 Index of Variations