Sokolov Ivan. Understanding Middlegame Strategies Vol.6: Ruy Lopez Structures

ChessBase, 2022. — ISBN-13 978-3-86681-872-9.Understanding an opening doesn’t stop after the theory. It’s essential to understand ideas and structures connected to the opening moves. Furthermore, recognizing mistakes by your opponent to gain an advantage is a key component of the middlegame. In this video course, we’ll concentrate on structures in the Ruy Lopez Defence.Anatoly Karpov once said: ‘Understanding the Ruy Lopez is crucial to middlegame improvement in chess’. On this video course I opted for ‘Karpov Ruy Lopez understanding type lines’, the massive majority of the material coming from Chigorin, Breyer and Zaitsev variations. I have tried to give viewers a ‘crash course’ on typical middlegame plans, typical material imbalance ideas (and dynamics), types of positions White or Black should be happy about (or try to avoid!), while combining it (when I saw fit) with useful opening advice (advice based on my forty years’ experience playing and researching those positions). The course aims to improve the understanding of these types of positions to help the viewer to play better and to get better results.