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When my opponent plays 1. e4 I reply with 1... e5. When the game shifts to Ruy Lopez after 2. Nf3 and 3. Bb5 I respond 3... f5. Although this opening is to my taste, I am not reluctant to learn more about chess and Ruy Lopez. I've heard an anecdote that a deceased GM once said that playing the Ruy Lopez can improve your chess overall. With that in mind I am into playing the Ruy Lopez, but preferably lines that

  1. don't require white to cooperate that much
  2. are sharp, possibly dubious
  3. deviate from mainlines such as Breyer, Berlin, d3, Marshall, Chigorin, Zaitsev etc.
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    The deceased GM probably ment playing the mainline positions of the Ruy Lopez can improve your chess, not that playing anything after 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Bb5 will improve your chess :/
    – B.Swan
    Jul 28, 2020 at 12:52

2 Answers 2

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There are a couple of games between AlphaZero and Stockfish. The authors of the book Game Changer about AlphaZero, GM Matthew Sadler and WIM Natasha Regan, analyse the opening phase of these two games in this YouTube video.

Here are the opening moves from the two games, first with AlphaZero playing black and coming up with a new idea, castling queenside and pushing the h pawn.

[Title "Stockfish vs AlphaZero"]
[fen ""]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 f5 4.Nc3 fxe4 5.Nxe4 Nf6 6.Nxf6+ Qxf6 7.Qe2 Be7 8.Bxc6 bxc6 9.Nxe5 Bb7 10.O-O O-O-O 11.d3 Rde8 12.Nc4 h5 13.Qe3 h4 14.Qh3 Kb8 15.Bd2 d5 16.Bc3 d4 17.Bd2 Bc8 18.Qf3 Qxf3 19.gxf3 Be6

And then with AlphaZero playing white and again getting very aggressive

[Title "AlphaZero vs Stockfish"]
[fen ""]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 f5 4.d3 fxe4 5.dxe4 Nf6 6.O-O d6 7.Bc4 Bg4 8.h3 Bh5 9.Nc3 Qd7 10.Nd5 O-O-O 11.Qd3 Kb8 12.a4 Ne7 13.Ng5 Bg6 14.Nxf6 gxf6 15.Nf7 Bxf7 16.Bxf7 h5 17.a5 a6 18.Qb3 Nc6 19.Be3 Bh6 20.Be6 Qg7 21.Bd5 Qd7 22.Ra3 Bxe3 23.fxe3

Then there are these two YouTube videos where GM Melik Khachiyan analyses some of his games in the Schlieman -

Part 1
Part 2

Finally Kingscrusher analyses the historic game Bobby Fischer vs Milan Matulovic - Herceg Novi Blitz 1970 on his YouTube channel.

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You could find that by googling "e4 e5 Nf3 Nc6 Bb5 f5"

Here is the first result

Anyway the Ruy Lopez (and many other openings) improve your chess overall if you play the strategically rich mainlines, not because there's any magic behind 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 that will make you a better player. The line you suggest is great and will leave you with pretty fun games, but don't expect many strategical subtilties on it.

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