Ruy Lopez

The Ruy Lopez, also known as the Spanish Game or Spanish Opening, arises after 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5. The bishop targets the knight that protects e5, but the pawn is not yet genuinely threatened: 4. Bxc6 dxc6 5. Nxe5 is met by 5...Qd4, recovering the pawn with a fork. White's aims are longer term. The bishop develops with tempo-free ease, kingside castling is ready, and unlike on c4 the piece cannot be harassed by ...d5. White usually builds towards c3 and d4 to establish a broad center, keeping Black's queenside development restrained.

Black's first decision is whether to put the question with 3...a6, the Morphy Defense, which is the standard choice in master play. White may give up the bishop with 4. Bxc6, the Exchange Variation, or retreat with 4. Ba4, after which ...b5 is always available to break the pressure on c6. The main line continues 4...Nf6 5. O-O, where 5...Nxe4 leads to the Open Variation and 5...Be7 to the Closed system. In the classical Closed position after 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 d6 8. c3 O-O 9. h3, White prepares d4 and often reroutes the queen's knight via d2 and f1 to g3, while Black seeks queenside expansion or pressure on e4 through ninth-move systems such as the Chigorin (9...Na5), Breyer (9...Nb8) and Zaitsev (9...Bb7). Castling first with 7...O-O instead allows 8. c3 d5, the Marshall Attack, a pawn sacrifice for play against White's king that Frank Marshall introduced in 1918; many White players sidestep it with Anti-Marshall moves such as 8. a4 or 8. h3.

Among the third-move alternatives, 3...Nf6, the Berlin Defense, is the most important. It is respected for its solidity and frequent drawish endgames, and became a top-level weapon after Vladimir Kramnik relied on it against Garry Kasparov in their 2000 world title match. 3...f5, the Schliemann or Jaenisch Gambit, strikes at the center from the flank and is usually answered by 4. d3. 3...d6, the Steinitz Defense, holds e5 directly but leaves Black cramped and pinned, with 4. d4 the critical test. Other options include 3...Bc5, the Classical Variation aiming at f2; the Cozio Defense 3...Nge7; Bird's Defense 3...Nd4, where 4. Nxd4 exd4 gives Black space at the cost of structure; and the weakening Nürnberg Variation 3...f6. In online play 3...a6, 3...d6 and 3...Nf6 are all common.

The opening appears in the Göttingen manuscript of around 1490 and takes its name from Ruy López de Segura, whose 1561 book on chess examined it. It became fashionable only after Carl Jaenisch's analysis in 1847. Covering ECO codes C60 to C99, it has the deepest theory of any Open Game and remains a fixture of elite chess; Black's difficulty in fully equalising earned it the nickname "the Spanish Torture". Engines assess the starting position as roughly balanced, and White scores somewhat better in practice.