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The Steinitz Defence Deferred is an interesting and still relatively unexplored system against the Ruy Lopez (3.Bb5). Apparently passive, yet extremely solid and quite flexible, it has survived the test of time since the late 19th century. Chess greats like Janowski, Schlechter, Capablanca, Alekhine, Keres, Smyslov, etc.
The aim of this opening survey is to provide you with an easily understandable and concrete Steinitz Defence Deferred (in further text SDD) opening repertoire against the Ruy Lopez. SDD is a relatively rare occurence on the top level, but this can be a blessing in disguise for a club or a casual tournament player. Many white players dismiss such opening variations as second-rate and pay less attention to them than to Breyers and Marshalls of the world, on which they are ready to spend countless hours of analysis. If your knowledge of SDD is solid and deep, while your opponent's is superficial and coupled with "today I play against that off-beat Ruy Lopez line" approach, guess who has the upper hand?

Since White has serious problems to obtain an advantage in the Berlin Defence, top players started searching for new ideas in the Italian Game. That is why every 1...e5 player should have a solid weapon against this opening.
In his database, GM Boris Avrukh suggests a modern approach to this classical opening. He provides the reader with detailed explanations and valuable new ideas. This feature makes the survey suitable not only for club players but also for top grandmasters. At the end of the database, the reader could find a test section which helps him to test his understanding.

In the first database concerning the Berlin, we have learned how to handle the
Berlin Endgame which arises after the move 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.0-0
Nxe4 5.d4 Nd6 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.dxe5 Nf5 8.Qxd8 Kxd8. As we have seen, if Black
knows what he is doing in this endgame, it's extremely difficult for White to
pose any problems.That's the reason why White started to look for some
possible deviations from the Berlin Endgame. Despite the fact that such lines
don't promise an advantage, the arising posиtions and structures are complex
and tricky to handle. That's why Black should be very familiar with all the
positional and tactical subtleties in order to avoid entering a difficult
position.

An ex top 10 Grandmaster, who has defeated on the board no less than 8 World Champions in three formats - classical, rapid, and blitz - has released the best of his knowledge about Berlin Endgame.
The Berlin Variation is by far the most popular top-level player's weapon against Ruy Lopez. Nevertheless, the vast majority of chess fans are not familiar with the subtleties of the arising positions. In his newest opening project, GM Kiril Georgiev builds a complete Berlin-based repertoire against Ruy Lopez.