refutor
♡ 26 ( +1 | -1 ) only study a fewif you play it as black, you're the one making most of the choices here...white can force the exchange lines and the worrall and anderssen lines, but for the most part black is the one making the decisions. play over most of these and see which ones look interesting to you.
cosanostra
♡ 54 ( +1 | -1 ) spiralconsidering your rating I say do not bother.
You should play around having fun, learning tactical play- mate combos and such.
Just look at info.ex.ac.uk/~dregis/DR/abc2.html and develop from there. Once you have improved your game it will be necessary to learn some openings however then you will also have developed a taste for how you like playing. Then you can choose.
atrifix
♡ 78 ( +1 | -1 ) Why are you studying these?Are you writing a doctoral thesis on the Morphy Defense, or are you playing it as White or as Black?
My advice if you are playing it as White: study either the Exchange Variation or the following: the Steinitz Defense, the Moller and Archangel Defenses, the Open Ruy Lopez, the Marshall Attack, and typical closed lines such as Chigorin/Breyer--especially the Zaitsev. The Zaitsev Variation probably is the most theoretically important. Also, if you are playing the Lopez as White, you should study other Black tries besides 3...a6; most notably, the Berlin Defense and the Classical Variation with 3... Bc5.
If you're playing it as Black, look at a few of these and then study one of them extensively. In time you'll figure out which of these suits you, then study only that.
atrifix
♡ 13 ( +1 | -1 ) AlsoI should agree with cosanotra, studying these variations is not nearly as important as learning how to play middlegames and endgames.
philaretus
♡ 22 ( +1 | -1 ) However...........if you still want to play it as Black, use the Berlin Defence:
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6
There isn't an enormous amount of analysis, and it involves some tricky piece play in the opening --- just the sort of practice that you'll benefit from.
spiral
♡ 127 ( +1 | -1 ) Thank you all for your replies.
cosanostra i know that it is important to learn middlegame combinations and such, and I think that I am slowly getting the idea. However with a lot of my games I am bumbling through the opening and get stuck with a bad position to try for combinations or other middlegame tactics, I wanted to study an opening to get the feel for it to try and gain an upperhand to better practice the middle game (not a perfect idea I know, mistakes are the best to learn from)
atrifix doctoral thesis was hardly in my scope of vision when I started the Morphy, but it quickly snowballed from there and I was lost, I posted these to see what others felt was the best route to take. As to your question, it is mostly as a Black reply to White's Ruy Lopez however knowing the defense is a vital part in knowing how to break it down. Thank you for your recommendations.
philaretus I'll take that to heart and play around with it, thank you.
cosanostra
♡ 13 ( +1 | -1 ) spiralIf you want some quick learning I can help you out. Just log into MSN and send me a message and I'll show you some overall tactics ok?
acne
♡ 13 ( +1 | -1 ) I think you may study exchange variation, modern steinitz defense and perhaps open defense? what's a marshall gambit?