Ruy Lopez for Black – Jospem Fights White's Deviations from the Open Spanish.
For decades, 1.e4 e5 players prepared their Marshall, their Berlin, their Open Spanish—only to face 5.d3 on move five. What was once dismissed as a “safe” sideline has quietly become White’s second most popular choice, appearing nearly as often as 5.O-O in elite practice. The landscape has shifted: you can no longer afford to treat these deviations as afterthoughts. Ruy Lopez for Black – Jospem’s Repertoire against the Sidelines addresses this modern reality head-on, offering a unified solution to every sideline White throws at you before castling kingside.
A Universal System Built on Practical Logic
What makes this course distinctive is its philosophical clarity. Rather than offering scattered defensive recipes, GMs José Martínez Alcántara and Pier Luigi Basso construct a single coherent framework centered on the ...Bc5 setup against White’s slow systems. The key insight? When White delays castling with 5.d3, he’s already committed a tempo to a square that doesn’t support the critical c3–d4 plan. Black exploits this by developing the bishop actively to c5, creating immediate central pressure and turning White’s “safe” choice into a positional problem.
This isn’t just borrowing the Arkhangelsk blueprint for every position—Basso and Martínez carefully distinguish when ...Bc5 makes structural sense and when other approaches are superior. The course covers the full spectrum: the resurgent Centre Attack (5.d4), the Worrall (5.Qe2), both Exchange Variation timings, Vallejo’s tricky 5.Nc3, and multiple flavors of 5.d3, including critical lines with Bg5 and Nc3. Every branch connects to a clear plan, giving you genuine counterplay rather than defensive suffering.
What’s Inside
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10 Chapters covering all major deviations from 5.O-O
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30 Test Positions for pattern recognition and calculation
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Memory Booster for long-term retention
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2 Hours 17 Minutes of detailed video explanations
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Basso’s 15-Minute Repertoire for quick review
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Multilingual PGN (English, German, French, Spanish)
Spanish Deviations – Variation Roadmap
Chapter 1: Centre (Mackenzie) Attack – 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.d4
Chapter 2: Worrall Attack – 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.Qe2
Chapter 3: Early Bg5 – 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.d3 b5 6.Bb3 Bc5 7.Bg5
Chapter 4: Bg5 after c3 – 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.d3 b5 6.Bb3 Bc5 7.c3 O-O 8.Bg5
Chapter 5: 5.d3 Main Line – 1.e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.d3 b5 6.Bb3 Bc5 7.O-O O-O 8.c3 d5
Chapter 6: Early Nc3 – 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.d3 b5 6.Bb3 Bc5 7.Nc3
Chapter 7: Early Nc3 (Vallejo System) – 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.Nc3
Chapter 8: a4 Systems – 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.d3 b5 6.Bb3 Bc5 7.a4 Rb8 8.axb5 axb5
Chapter 9: Exchange Variation – 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Bxc6
Chapter 10: Delayed Exchange Variation – 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.Bxc6
Complete Your Black Repertoire
This course functions as Part 2 of a comprehensive Ruy Lopez system for Black. It pairs naturally with the authors’ earlier work Open Spanish for Black – The Modern 6...Be7, which handles the mainline 5.O-O structures. Together, these courses give you a unified and deeply analyzed approach to every position after 3.Bb5—turning opening preparation from a source of uncertainty into a source of confidence.
Modern chess demands modern solutions. When the sidelines become main lines, you need a repertoire that treats them with the same seriousness as the classical Spanish. Ruy Lopez for Black – Jospem’s Repertoire against the Sidelines delivers precisely that: a practical, unified, and deeply instructive arsenal for today’s competitive player.