Marshall Attack with 11…Bb7

The Marshall Attack has long been one of the most important systems against the Ruy Lopez, and it is one of the sharpest. With the advance 8…d5, Black sacrifices their e-pawn and then attempts to launch an attack against the White’s king, making use of the open diagonals and lines. Until now, after 9.exd5 Nxd5 10.Nxe5 Nxe5 11.Rxe5, 11…c6 was considered the absolute main continuation. Variants up to the 40th move have been analysed here. In his article for the current CBM #229, Robert Ris presents an alternative with 11…Bb7, which is by no means worse, more natural and very promising in practice. Take a look at this week’s CBM reading sample!