Timothy Taylor - Slay the Spanish

First published in 2011 by Gloucester Publishers plc (formerly Everyman Publishers plc), Northburgh House, 10 Northburgh Street, London EC1V 0AT

Copyright 2011 Timothy Taylor

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ISBN: 978 1 85744 726 2

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To my beautiful wife Liz

Everyman Chess Series

Chief advisor: Byron Jacobs

Commissioning editor: John Emms

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Cover design by Horatio Monteverde.

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Contents

Bibliography and Acknowledgment

Books

Opening for White according to Anand, Vol. 2 , Alexander Khalifman

(Chess Stars 2003)

My Best Games of Chess, Vols. 1 & 2 , Alexander Alekhine (G.Bell and Sons 1969)

New York 1924 , Alexander Alekhine (Dover 1961)

My 60 Memorable Games , Bobby Fischer (Simon and Schuster 1969)

The Games of Robert J. Fischer , Wade and OConnell (Batsford 1972)

Grandmaster of Chess , Paul Keres (Arco 1972)

Easy Guide to the Ruy Lopez , John Emms (Everyman 1999)

Nottingham 1936 , Alexander Alekhine (Dover 1962)

Chess from Morphy to Botvinnik , Imre Knig (Dover 1977)

World Championship Interzonals , Wade, Blackstock and Kotov (Batsford 1974)

My Best Games of Chess , Vassily Smyslov (Dover 1972)

Counter Gambits , Tim Harding (British Chess Magazine 1974)

The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal , Mikhail Tal (Everyman 2003)

Practical Chess Endings , Paul Keres (Doubleday 1974)

Spanisch bis Franzsisch , Paul Keres (Sportverlag Berlin 1969)

Play the Ruy Lopez , Andrew Greet (Everyman 2007)

The Siesta Variation , D.N.L. Levy (The Chess Player 1971)

Computer Programs and Databases

ChessBase.com; Fritz 11

MegaBase 2010 with updates through 2011

MegaCorr4 (Chess Mail)

Correspondence Database 2010 (ChessBase)

Acknowledgment

Very special thanks to Grandmaster Michael Han.

Introduction

The Spanish Inquisition lasted from 1478 to 1834, but chessplayers have yet to escape the Spanish Torture! First studied by the priest (later bishop) Ruy Lopez de Segura, 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 (the Ruy Lopez or Spanish Opening) has tormented Black players for five hundred years, and theres no end in sight. According to Chessgames.com Opening Explorer, the Ruy is more than three times more popular than the Italian Game (3 Bc4) and about five times more popular than the Kings Gambit.

Bottom line, if as Black you wish to defend classically and meet 1 e4 with e5 and 2 Nf3 with Nc6you will face the Ruy Lopez.

And you will face it again and again. I always try to play any opening that I write about, but sometimes its not so simple. As I noted in my book, The Budapest Gambit , in the seven months of preparing the manuscript I was unable to get a single Budapest Gambit, even though the opening started on move two! Obviously it was easier to get the subject of my next, Alekhine Alert , with the get it in one 1 ... Nf6, but the Ruy Lopez is so popular among White players that it was just as easy to get as an Alekhine, even though the opening starts on the third move, not the first.

I advocate the Modern Steinitz against the Ruy, and this is the subject of this book: the basic tabiya occurs after the moves 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 d6 .

Whites only way of avoiding the Modern Steinitz (once hes started with the Ruy) is the Exchange Variation, where White plays 4 Bxc6 instead of 4 Ba4. In order to give Black players a full repertoire Ive covered the Exchange in Chapters Ten and Eleven.

One advantage of the Modern Steinitz is that it is learnable, even if you are starting from scratchbut just try a repertoire based on the Marshall Gambit! I like this sound sharp gambit, and I used to have great success with itbut since my opening only started after the moves 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 0-0 Be7 6 Re1 b5 7 Bb3 0-0 8 c3 and now 8 ... d5move eight!in practice, after a few gambit successes as Black, I never got the Marshall againjust a huge assortment of Anti-Marshalls. I faced extraordinarily boring lines like the DERLD (delayed exchange Ruy Lopez deferred) where, on the sixth move, White avoids Marshall for the sleepyland line 6 Bxc6 dxc6 7 d3 (see True Combat Chess for a miracle win from a dead-drawn position resulting from this opening).

You get the Modern Steinitz in four, with only one deviation, the Exchange Variation that goes with the territoryinstead of a laundry list of deviations right up to move eight (need I mention later Anti-Marshalls like 8 h3 and 8 a4).

With the Modern Steinitz one gets a sound opening where, in most lines, you get your position and Black can play for a win. I cant say its a walk-over for Blackbut you will get rich play with excellent chances to equalize and more importantly, be able to counter-attack!

Before we begin the book proper with my traditional World Champions retrospective, its worth going through the basic variations that will be covered, chapter by chapter. One thing that surprised me as I studied was the great variety of play under the MS umbrella: there are two positively savage gambits, the Siesta and the Yandemirov, where Black sacrifices a pawn or a piece, respectively, for purely speculative reasonsand there are two rock solid positional lines. Yet even the positional lines sometimes feature wild attacksunlike almost all other variations of the Ruy, in the Modern Steinitz Black frequently castles queenside; see, for example, Games 4, 23, 28 and 36. Besides all this, there are short forced draws and long endgame grinds. There are even two completely different ways of meeting the Exchange Variation! In short, theres something for everyone. Heres a preview of the lines that I will cover:

1. World Champions

Every World Champion (with the sole exception of Kramnik) has either played the MS or played against it. Capablanca and Alekhine were great advocates of the defence, but the ultimate MS star of world-class players was someone who never received the title of World Champion, Mr. Forever Second, Paul Keres. According to the MegaBase , Keres played 59 games with the MS, using it throughout his career against foes such as Tal, Spassky, Euwe, Geller, Bronstein, etc. He won 27 games, drew 28, and lost only 4, for an astonishing winning percentageagainst top level competitionof nearly 70% with Black!

With that kind of record, Ive made Keres an honorary World Champion and hero of the entire book. The first chapter, as well as all the others (except for Chapters Six and Eleven, which feature lines he never played) will start with a Keres gamethere is no better way to understand the Modern Steinitz than to study his games.