The Ruy Lopez (; ), also called the Spanish Opening or Spanish Game, is a chess opening beginning with the moves:
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5
White the bishop to the active square b5 (the so-called ""), attacking the knight that defends Black's e-pawn.
Recommended by the 16th century Spanish priest Ruy López de Segura, it is still regularly played in top-level competition. The theory of the Ruy Lopez is the most extensively developed of all Open Games; some lines have been analysed well beyond move thirty. At nearly every move there are many reasonable alternatives, and most have been deeply explored.
In the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings (ECO), the opening is classified under codes C60 to C99.
History The Ruy Lopez is named after Ruy López de Segura, a 16th-century Spanish priest who systematically studied this and other openings in his 150-page chess book, Libro del Axedrez, written in 1561. Lopez advocated 3.Bb5 as superior to 3.Bc4, and was of the opinion that Black should play 2...d6 (the Philidor Defence) to avoid it. Although it bears his name, this particular opening was included in the Göttingen manuscript, which dates from . The Ruy Lopez did not gain widespread popularity until the mid-19th century, when Finnish-Russian theoretician Carl Jaenisch published a detailed article on in the December 1847 issue of Le Palamède, the world’s first chess periodical. An abridged version appeared in the Chess Player's Chronicle in 1848, followed by a supplementary article in the same publication in 1849.
The Ruy Lopez has long been regarded as the most important opening among the Open Games at master level. Nearly every player has employed it at some point in their career, often with both colours. Due to the difficulty for Black in achieving , a common nickname for the opening is "The Spanish Torture".
Basics + Forking tactics for Black At the most basic level, White's third move attacks Black's knight, which defends the e-pawn from capture by White's knight on f3. White's apparent threat to win Black's e-pawn with 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.Nxe5 is illusory because Black can respond 5...Qd4, forking the knight and e-pawn and regaining the with a good position.
Even if White defends the e-pawn, Black may still have tactical opportunities. For example, in the Anti-Berlin (3...Nf6 4.d3), if Black plays 4...Bc5, 5.Bxc6 dxc6 6.Nxe5 does not win a pawn because of 6...Qd4, where the bishop on c5 supports the queen in threatening checkmate with 7...Qxf2, allowing Black to win the knight.
White must take some care not to fall into the Noah's Ark Trap, in which Black traps White's with ...a6, ...b5, and ...c4 pawn advances on the . This can occur in the 8.d4 Anti-Marshall, for example.
Despite the pitfalls, White's 3.Bb5 is still a good move. It a piece, prepares castling, and sets up a potential pin against Black's king. Unlike in the Italian Game (3.Bc4), the bishop is not threatened by a timely d7-d5 push from Black.
Overview Since White's third move carries no immediate threat, Black can respond in a wide variety of ways. An immediate choice for Black is whether to play 3...a6 or not. Black's common third-move alternatives include:
3...Nf6 (Berlin Defence) 3...f5 (Jaenisch Gambit) 3...Bc5 (Cordel Defence) 3...g6 (Fianchetto Defence) 3...Nge7 (Cozio Defence) 3...Nd4 (Bird's Defence) 3...d6 (Steinitz Defence)
By far the most common of these is the Berlin Defence, which has a reputation as a solid . It gained widespread popularity in the 2000s after Vladimir Kramnik demonstrated its viability in the 2000 Classical World Championship match against Garry Kasparov, successfully using it to draw in four of Kasparov's eight games with white.
Morphy Defence: 3...a6
The Morphy Defence (3...a6) is Black's most popular reply. Paul Morphy employed it in the second game (a draw) and fourth game (a win for Morphy) of his 1858 match against Adolf Anderssen in Paris. Earlier that year, Morphy had also encountered 3...a6 in one of his games against Johann Löwenthal in London. The move later gained widespread popularity and was subsequently named after him, although he was not its originator. Charles Henry Stanley played 3...a6 twice in his 1845 match, held in Morphy's hometown of New Orleans, against Eugène Rousseau for the United States Chess Championship. Stanley lost both games, although he won the match. Howard Staunton also mentioned 3...a6 in his Chess-Player's Handbook, first published in 1847. The first author to mention the move was Ercole del Rio, in his 1750 treatise Sopra il giuoco degli Scacchi, Osservazioni pratiche dell'anonimo Modenese (On the game of Chess, practical Observations by an anonymous Modenese). The late 19th century World Champion Wilhelm Steinitz did not approve of the move, writing in The Modern Chess Instructor (1889) that it drives the bishop to a better square. Steinitz's opinion did not prevail, however; 3...a6 is played in about two thirds of all games beginning with the Ruy Lopez.As of 2016-11-23, Chess-DB.com reports that 243,757 out of 355,830 games in its database beginning with the Ruy Lopez, continued with 3...a6, i.e. a percentage of approx. 68.5%. Similarly, 365Chess.com reports a 69.3% percentage (100,540 out of 145,061 games) and ChessBase.com (requires free registration) reports a 74.3% percentage (63,183 out of 85,022 games).
The point of 3...a6 is to force White to either retreat or exchange the bishop for Black's knight. Thus, the move "puts the question" to the bishop, a traditional usage attributed to Aron Nimzowitsch. White must decide between exchanging the bishop for the knight with 4.Bxc6, the Exchange Variation, or the more common retreat 4.Ba4. If 4.Ba4, Black will have the possibility of breaking a future pin on the by playing ...b5.
After 4.Ba4, Black's usual response is 4...Nf6, which was Morphy's choice in his games with 3...a6. Black's fourth-move alternatives include:
4...d6 (Modern Steinitz Defence) 4...Bc5 (Cordel Defence Deferred) 4...Nge7 (Cozio Defence Deferred) 4...g6 (Fianchetto Defence Deferred) 4...f5 (Jaenisch Gambit Deferred) 4...b5 5.Bb3 Na5 (Norwegian Defence)
After 4...Nf6, Black appears to threaten White's e-pawn. 5.0-0 is by far White's most common move, despite leaving the pawn undefended, as White can eventually regain it if Black plays 5...Nxe4. White's fifth-move alternatives include:
5.d3 (Anderssen Variation) 5.Bxc6 (Bayreuth Variation) 5.Qe2 (Wormald Variation) 5.Nc3 (Tarrasch Variation) 5.d4 (Mackenzie Variation)
After 5.0-0, Black faces a major choice. The most common continuation is the 5...Be7, the Closed Defence, while 5...Nxe4, the Open Defence, and 5...b5, the Arkhangelsk Defence, represent important alternative systems.
5...Be7 (Closed Defence) 5...Nxe4 (Open Defence) 5...b5 (Arkhangelsk Defence) 5...Bc5 (Møller Defence) 5...d6 (Russian Defence)
Closed Defence: 5...Be7
The Closed Defence, 3...a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7, represents the most played system of the Ruy Lopez. Black genuinely threatens to win a pawn with 6...b5 followed by 7...Nxe4. White usually responds by defending the e-pawn with either 6.Re1 or 6.d3, after which 7.Bxc6 followed by 8.Nxe5 threatens to win a pawn. Following 6...b5 7.Bb3, Black usually plays either 7...d6 or 7...0-0.
7...d6 typically continues with 8.c3, addressing Black's threat of trading off White's bishop via 8...Na5. After 8...0-0, White usually plays 9.h3 in order to prevent the pin 9...Bg4. The position reached is the classical main line of the Ruy Lopez.
7...0-0 usually indicates that Black intends to meet 8.c3 with 8...d5, offering a pawn in exchange for active play against White’s king, a line known as the Marshall Attack. To avoid this highly theoretical gambit, White often chooses one of the eighth-move alternatives (8.a4, 8.h3, 8.d4, or 8.d3), collectively known as the Anti-Marshall Systems, which aim to discourage Black from executing the ...d5 break. When White chooses 8.c3, Black may also transpose to the classical main line with 8...d6, a practical option for players who might prefer facing an Anti-Marshall variation, but do not wish to play the Marshall Attack.
A variety of sidelines are possible, listed below. White's most common deviation from the classical main line starting with 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 is 6.d3, the Martinez Variation, a modern line that has grown in popularity.
6.Re1 6...b5 7.Bb3 7...d6 8.c3 0-0 9.h3 (Classical main line) 9.d4 (Yates Variation) 9.d3 (Pilnik Variation) 8.a4 (Anti-Classical system) 7...0-0 8.c3 8...d5 (Marshall Attack) 8...d6 9.h3 (Classical main line, by transposition) without 8.c3 (Anti-Marshall Systems) 7...Bb7 (Trajković Variation) 6...d6 (Averbakh Variation) 6.d3 (Martinez Variation) 6.Bxc6 (Steenwijk Variation) 6.Qe2 (Worrall Attack) 6.Nc3 (Morphy Attack) 6.d4 (transposing to the Mackenzie Variation)
Classical main line: 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 0-0 9.h3
6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 0-0 9.h3 is the traditional main line of the Closed Defence. It is often regarded as the main line of the Ruy Lopez as a whole, though 7...0-0 now rivals it in popularity. Thousands of top-level games have reached this position. With 8.c3, White prepares the central break d4 and plans the typical knight manoeuvre Nbd2–f1–g3, firmly reinforcing e4 while activating the bishops on open diagonals and directing both knights toward Black's kingside. Black, in turn, seeks to counter this plan by expanding on the queenside, challenging the centre, or increasing pressure on e4.
Black has several common moves, including 9...Na5 (Chigorin Variation), 9...Nb8 (Breyer Variation), 9...Bb7 (Zaitsev Variation), 9...Nd7 (Karpov Variation), 9...Be6 (Kholmov Variation), and 9...h6 (Smyslov Variation). For decades, the Chigorin Variation was Black's principal choice, but alternative lines rose to prominence in the second half of the twentieth century as players like Boris Spassky and Anatoly Karpov sought ways to avoid the necessity of repositioning Black's awkwardly placed knight.
Chigorin Variation: 9...Na5
The Chigorin Variation was refined by Mikhail Chigorin around the turn of the 20th century and became the primary Black defence to the Ruy Lopez for more than fifty years. With 9...Na5 Black chases the white bishop from the a2–g8 diagonal and frees the c-pawn for queenside expansion. After 10.Bc2 c5 11.d4, the classical follow-up is 11...Qc7, reinforcing e5 and placing the queen on the c-file, which may later become open after...cxd4. Other Black moves in this position are 11...Bb7 and 11...Nd7; the latter was adopted by Paul Keres a few times in the 1960s. The Chigorin Variation has declined in popularity because Black must spend time bringing the offside knight on a5 back into the game. 10...d5 is the Gajewski Gambit, sacrificing the e-pawn for . This is less sound than 10...c5, but can be good in practical play.
The Chigorin is divided into four ECO classifications. In C96, Black or White deviate after 10.Bc2, and do not reach the main line position 10...c5 11.d4 Qc7. In C97, White proceeds from the diagram with 12.a4, 12.d5, 12.b4, or the main line 12.Nbd2 when Black responds with ...Be6, ...Rd8, ...Re8, ...Bb7, or ...Bd7. The C98 classification covers 12.Nbd2 Nc6, while C99 covers 12.Nbd2 cxd4 13.cxd4.
Breyer Variation: 9...Nb8
With 9...Nb8, Black frees the c-pawn and intends to route the knight to d7 where it supports e5. If White fortifies the centre with 10.d3, the opening is classified ECO code C94. The more common continuation, 10.d4, is ECO C95.