Chess strategy question

The Game Room
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1

I watch a lot of chess videos by agadmator and gothamchess and they do a good job of explaining strategy behind moves but the problem is that they never talk strategy about the openings since they are all standard book moves all the top chess players have memorized. The problem is when playing against beginners they don’t use “book moves”. For example.

  1. e4 e5
  2. Nf3 Nc6
  3. Bb5 a6 The Ruy Lopez with Morphy’s Defense
  4. Ba4
    Now at the expert level the chasing away the bishop ends there there but most beginners as black now play b5 forcing the white bishop back to b3. Why don’t the pros do this; or in other words why is it a bad move and how as white can I take advantage of it?
2

Chess Analysis Board and PGN Editor - Chess.com lets you go and analyze positions. From what I can tell, Stockfish rates b5 as the best position just ahead of Be7 and Nf6. I’m getting different evaluation values if I reset the position, so I can’t guarantee that b5 is the best, but it’s almost certainly a reasonable move.

Which doesn’t answer your question. I’d be curious as well. Could just be inertia or that b5 leads to more complicated positions that are harder to play for a human vs an engine. But there’s not like a trap or anything that makes b5 a terrible move.

3

There’s nothing wrong with b5 there. In a lot of cases it will transpose to one of the more common lines. Something like this is mostly just fashion.

Bobby Fischer played this during his famous perfect run at the US Championship, so it can’t be too bad.

4

I don’t think it’s a big decision.

  1. Black can play …b5 later (since the only way for White to prevent it would be to play c4 (and White usually prefers to play c3 later to support a d4 advance.)

  2. Pushing the White bishop to b3 puts pressure on f7 before Black is ready to castle.
    For example after 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 b5 5. Bb3 Nf6, White can consider Ng5 (with interesting play.)

I remember chatting with a Grandmaster who played the Ruy Lopez.
He told me that there were various choices in the opening for both sides … e.g. would the White Knight on b1 move to d2 or c3?
The GM had analysed a mass of games to see what factors affected this choice (e.g. the pawn structure.)

Top class chess is hard work! :wink:

5

When I play Bb5, pinning the knight, I fully expect and usually get, a6. This is called, “putting the question to the bishop”. I play bishop X knight and go into the open variation of the Ruy Lopez because it clearly defines the strategy of the middle game. As white, I want to keep the center closed and not allow black’s twin bishops open lines. I want to eventually reach an endgame that is advantageous to me because of a superior pawn structure. In the endgame, knight’s are superior to bishops if the position is closed and the bishops blocked, but the opposite is true if the position is open.