If you do not feel up to the heavy positional demands made on you by the Ruy Lopez, you more or less have to turn to 3.Bc4 and after the strongest reply, 3. Bc5, you are into the Giuoco Piano. This opening set-up is reckoned to be one of the oldest known in the history of chess and the author, Ripperger, is right to comment:

"This opening, more than any other, reflects the very development of the game of chess. This means that the Giuoco Piano is the best suited for those making a start in opening theory. The author put great emphasis on his training database, so that the learner can check the knowledge he has gained in an interactive fashion, struggling against the clock."

Features:

• Suitable for club players
• 11 texts and 240 annotated model games
• training database with more than 160 questions
• 2 supplementary databases with more than 44,000 games
• includes the ChessBase-Reader

Specifications:

• By Ripperger
  
• System requirements:
• Pentium, 32 MB RAM, Windows 95, 98, 2000, ME, XP