The Ruy Lopez for White – Part 2 by GM Arjun Kalyan
The knight that overstays its welcome
Nimzowitsch's old advice — take any central pawn if it can be done without too much danger — is the whole justification for the Open Variation. After 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O, 5...Nxe4 grabs the central pawn and keeps the knight aggressively posted. The lost pawn itself is temporary — White recovers it on e5 — so the real struggle is over that knight: neutralise it, as Kalyan puts it, and the position turns in White's favour.
It is a line Arjun Kalyan respects without affection. In his own words, it was one he never considered playing as Black: full of positions where Black suffers yet the engine somehow holds, and a line that demands a great deal of theory from whoever takes it on. Part 2 is built around that tension — how to meet Black's most ambitious, best-prepared replies without walking straight into the theory they have memorised.
Sidestepping the main road
Kalyan's answer is rarely to meet theory with more theory. The critical tabiya arises after 5...Nxe4 6.d4 b5 7.Bb3 d5 8.dxe5 Be6 9.c3 Be7 — the well-trodden 10.Nbd2 runs into 10...Nc5 11.Bc2 d4! 12.Nb3 d3, a sequence that has appeared in countless games.
Instead he recommends 10.Bc2!?, keeping the d4-square under control, preparing Nd2 to trade off the active e4-knight, and quietly taking Black's thematic ...d4 break off the table. It has been played far less than the main line and can land as a genuine surprise over the board — a small practical victory before the real fight begins.
Facing his own weapon
There is a thread running from the first volume into this one. In Part 1, Kalyan wielded a line he had disliked enough as Black to abandon it. Here he confronts the Arkhangelsk — 5...b5 6.Bb3 Bc5 — which he calls one of his favourite lines from the other side.
He knows its resources deeply, and his recommendation reflects that respect: 7.c3 d6 8.d4 Bb6 9.Be3, developing harmoniously, not rushing with h3, and answering Black's pressure on both central pawns with precise piece play. The closely related setup, 6...Bb7, is met by 7.Nc3 and an early d3 — keeping the b7-bishop restricted while reserving the Nd5 jump for the right moment.
Variation map
Every independent Black try gets its own roadmap.
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O
5...b5 6.Bb3 Bc5 7.c3 d6 8.d4 Bb6 9.Be3
- 9.Be3 system sidelines → Chapter 1
- 9.Be3 0-0 10.Nd2 h6 11.h3, Black’s 11th-move options → Chapter 2
- 9.Be3 0-0 10.Nd2 Re8 11.Bc2, Black’s 11th-move options → Chapter 3
- 9.Be3 system with ...Rb8 plans → Chapter 4
5...b5 6.Bb3 Bb7 7.Nc3
- 7.Nc3 Bc5 & 7…Bd6 → Chapter 5
- 7.Nc3 Be7 → Chapter 6
5...Nxe4 6.d4
- 6...Be7 and early sidelines, 7.Re1 → Chapter 7
- 6...b5 7.Bb3 d5 8.dxe5 Be6 9.c3 Bc5 — Dilworth Variation → Chapter 8
- 9...Be7 10.Bc2, sidelines (including the critical 10...Bg4) → Chapter 9
- 9...Be7 10.Bc2 O-O → Chapter 10
What's inside
- 10 chapters
- 20 test positions
- Memory Booster
- To Go version of every chapter
- Video instruction throughout
- Multilingual PGN (English, German, French, Spanish)
Where Part 2 fits
Part 2 takes on three of Black's most independent replies after 5.O-O — grabbing the centre with 5...Nxe4, and the two active bishop deployments after 5...b5 6.Bb3, …Bc5 and …Bb7 — each with its own self-contained roadmap. It pairs naturally with The Ruy Lopez for White – Part 1, which handles the …Be7 structures and the quieter …b5 lines.
Add Part 2 to your repertoire
If you already play the Ruy Lopez — or you're building a 1.e4 repertoire that needs a principled answer to 1...e5 — Part 2 gives you a worked-out plan against Black's three sharpest replies, complete with the practical move-order choices that leave Black to solve the harder problems at the board.