E. Solozhenkin - The Spanish Main Road (K-5092)

It is comprised on the principle “The best move for me – against all the reasonable moves for the opponent.”. In some lines we analyse alternatives for Black.

As our main weapon against 9.h3 we recommend the Zaitzev system – 9...Bb7 10.d4 Re8. At the beginning of the year 2015 the Svidler variation began to gain popularity 9...Bb7 10.d4 Re8 11.Nbd2 exd4 12.cxd4 Nd7, which combines elements of the Zaitzev system and the Karpov variation 9...Nd7. We analyse it in this book as well, as a way for Black to avoid the already famous repetition of moves 11.Ng5 Rf8 12.Nf3. The book by Anatoly Bikhovsky “The Closed Spanish Karpov/Zaitsev Systems” (London 1993) was published long ago and many new ideas appeared in the Zaitzev system. Plenty of new practical material was amassed and we analysed it in the different chapters of our book. The positions which arise in the Aseev variation, after the moves 9...Bb7 10.d4 Re8 11.Nbd2 Bf8 12.a4 h6 13.Bc2 exd4 14.cxd4 Nb4 15.Bb1 c5 16.d5 Nd7 17.Ra3 f5 18.Nh2 Kh8 19.g4!, are simply beyond precise evaluation and maybe during the process of analysis some of the readers may see and understand the future development of the game of chess. I devote this book to the memory of my dear friend Konstantin Nikolaevich Aseev (1960-2004), who fell a victim to an insidious incurable disease.

I have written this book for my students. I hope it will be useful to all the players who wish to have the Ruy Lopez as a part of their opening repertoire with Black and who desire to know its nuances and fine points in details.

Evgeniy Solozhenkin

Saint Petersburg, April 2016

Evgeniy Solozhenkin is an International Grandmaster and a Russian Chess Federation coach. He is the director of the GM chess school of the North West federal district.

Solozhenkin was champion of Leni8ngrad and St. Petersburg, team champion of Russia, France and Finland.