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Gligorich said he had completely forgotten his Hastings analysis[.]

GM Bobby Fischer, commenting on one of his wins in the Exchange Variation

This chapter presents a second example memory palace: a repertoire as Black against the Spanish (Ruy Lopez) Exchange: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Bxc6 cxc6 5.O-O.

Again I present a “pure main line” repertoire, playing Black’s most popular move against every common try by White.

Before we begin I need to introduce transpositions and options for both colours. We deal with these using special features of the memory palace architecture: converging paths and ladders.

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The rest of Chapter 5 covers:

  1. Transpositions
  2. Options for both colours
  3. Step 1: Draw the tree diagram
  4. Step 2: Choose the setting
  5. Step 3: Map the locations
  6. Step 4: Select the picture words
  7. Step 5: Memorise the palace