u/NotKarpov

Hi! So you may have seen my post asking what I should play against e4 as black. I have so far settled on playing e5, as it overall seems like it is the best for improvement. I have also overhauled my white repertoire from playing the QG to now playing the Ruy Lopez as I am trying to get more comfortable w/ dynamic chess (I was already fine w/ aggressive chess, but not dynamic chess).

So to get to the point of this post, I have been struggling to find a suitable variation to play against the Ruy Lopez. I have been considering 3 variation, the Archangel, Marshall and Berlin.

The Archangel seems interesting because it is overall quite dynamic but not all out like the Marshall attack. But it also has quite a low win rate for black, and the only real resource on it is caruana's massive course, it also isn't that sound compared to the Berlin or smth.

The Marshall is extremely odd. When it is fully accepted, it seems that you either checkmate or end up playing an endgame a pawn down (which sounds horrible). Also white has many Anti-Marshalls, but those are pretty tame overall. You also need to deal w/ the exchange, and d3 (as opposed to Re1).

The Berlin is ofc very solid. You get to play an endgame a good portion of the time which I love. But idk if it is too passive for me. The fact that it draws all the time doesn't bother me as I enjoy drawing and everyone below 2000 plays to poorly for this to matter.

I think the Berlin would be best practically, the Marshall seems interesting, and the Archangel seems like a good aggressive option. I think I would get Shankland's LTR if I chose the Berlin, Caruana's course if the Archangel, and Ganguly's course if the Marshall (And I know chessable is too high level and you shouldn't use it under 2000, but these openings are MASSIVE and need in depth study.)

EDIT: I will just learn the Berlin for now, maybe learn some other response on the side at some point, but I feel the Berlin is simple and fine for my (low) rating.

For context I am a ~1300 (Online, USCF rating is still provisional) rated player who has switched e5 openings multiple times who generally enjoys solid and closed/semi-open positions.

I have gone e5, sicilian(Yuck!), Scandi(Yay!), French(Nope, the space disadvantage is brutal), Caro-Kann (Hated it, but I only played like 4 games w/ it at 300 Elo, and when I look at Caro-Kann positions I like them), to the Scandi(Again).

Currently I play the Queen's Gambit as white (coming from the Ruy, which was too sharp.) And as black I have been experimenting as of late, but will probably settle on the semi slav, which is my worst nightmare as a QG player.

The Sicilian looks nice, but the lines are too sharp (at least in the Taimanov, Najdorf, and A.D). Maybe the Kalishnikov or smth.

The Caro sucked when I played it, but that was at 300 Elo and I only played 3 games w/ it, and the positions look nice when I see them. 100% a candidate.

The Scandi is great, but when white plays e5, it just becomes an advanced Caro pretty much and idk how to play those positions. Also I have heard it isn't sound, and I want smth that follows principles for improvement. But besides that, I have 0 issues in the mainline Scandi, and I want an opening very similar to the Scandi.

The French was VERY crushing for me. I think it might have been skill issue, or the fact that I only tested in 10 Anonymous Lichess rapid games on a school computer in class lol (And those games are blunders galore lol). But I may consider it as a possible option.

The Open Game (And Nc6, not the Petroff) is something I have not played since 200 Elo, so my opinion is mostly based on examining positions from the Li database. The Berlin seems great, those positions look genuinely like some of the most exciting and fun positions I have ever seen (By "exciting" I mean how fun it seems to play for me, as I love defensive/positional chess, and have never understood why most players consider sharp positions more fun, unless they are completely winning, and I like sharp positions when I'm *completely* winning, but otherwise nah.), and GM games w/ the Berlin look awesome, but dealing w/ the 4 knights seems like HELL (So no Petroff), and the Italian looks painful. Still a candidate.

Idk what is good and what to play. What do you recommend, what are some resources for learning the openings you recommend? (Also why does no one post on r/tournamentchess or r/chess about opening vs e4, everyone asks for an opening against d4 or for white, but never against e4?)

EDIT: I will learn e5 now, case closed (or until that fails lol)

2ND EDIT: OK, well I am currently deciding between e5 and the Caro-Kann, mostly because I saw some Karpov games w/ the Caro-Kann and it looks nice. But I will probably land on the e5, will edit again once decision is made.